

Heirs of the Magi Archives

Cassie's Journal 2014 – Part Two

By Steve Leggett

Published by Steve Leggett - Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 – Steve Leggett

Cover Image by Kayla Leggett \- Copyright 2014 - Used by Permission

ISBN: 978-0-9940020-1-3
Books by Steve Leggett

Heirs of the Magi Trilogy

Magi Sanctuary

Magi Master

Magi Ascension – Part One – The Ascension Begins

Magi Ascension – Part Two – Light Your World (Forthcoming)

Heirs of the Magi Archives

 Cassie's Journal 2011

 Cassie's Journal 2012 - Part One

 Cassie's Journal 2012 – Part Two

Cassie's Journal 2013 – Part One

Cassie's Journal 2013 – Part Two

Cassie's Journal 2014 – Part One

Cassie's Journal 2014 – Part Two

Cassie's Journal 2015 – Part One – (Forthcoming)

The Catalyst Chronicles

 The Catalyst is Born

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Table of Contents

July 2014

August 2014

September 2014

October 2014

November 2014

December 2014

Notes

July 2014

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

We started out the day with a bit of rain, but that was over with by the time we went outside for Tai Chi; and it's been a beautiful day since then – with the bonus of being hot while not being the kind of scorchers we've had for the past few days.

That made it perfect for a lazy play day; and that's exactly what Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I did for most of the day once we were all finished with a bit of work or other activities for the first hour or so after breakfast. For Rowen and me that included getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for a morning at KidZone and then dropping them off there before moving on to spend most of the next few hours at the park with Michael and Tim. We rode the trails and worked on some favorite tricks; went swimming a couple of times; and then had a picnic by the river before hitting the Emporium for an ice cream dessert.

There was some more biking in the afternoon; more swimming; and some play time with Ethan and Ehlana when Mom brought them home from an afternoon with her at the lab. I went home with Michael for dinner after that; we had our teen praise team practice; and then we followed that up with some more play time with Ethan and Ehlana before they went to bed. That mostly consisted of a long swim in the river and a bedtime snack and story on the back porch, and after we tucked them in for the night; Michael and I came up to the lounge for a little alone time that was like the rest of the day – moderately hot; but not scorching! ;^)

We wrapped up our evening with a late swim that Violet, Dillon, Jake, Stephanie, Josiah, and Christina all joined us for; and then Michael went home and I came back up to my room to get ready for bed and take care of some family business work that I wanted to get ahead on before my usual Wednesday work day. I kicked it into Magi gear to do that; so I'll still be sleeping before midnight; but doing that has tired me out a bit more than I expected tonight.

There wasn't any major news via email tonight, and I don't really have anything else to report even though this seems very short for what has been one of those really good 'normal' days. Since we've got a couple of busy work days ahead of the Fourth of July holiday on Friday, though; I'll just keep it this short and enjoy the extra rest while I can – especially since we're likely going to have a lot of late nights for not just this weekend; but for the next couple of weeks while my cousins are here for their holidays.

I am definitely ready for some nap time right now, though; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

We've had a really nice weather day today, but it really almost felt cool out to have the temperature drop down into the seventies after topping one hundred and ten on the weekend. That made the river feel warm by comparison today, and while it would have been great for biking too; we didn't really end up having much teen play time today. Rowen and Tim ended up being busy doing other things almost all day; so Michael and I spent his afternoon break playing with Ethan and Ehlana in the back yard and going for a long swim and water games session.

I worked in the office on the family business a lot of the rest of the time; helped to cook dinner and then take care of the clean-up; and then started babysitting Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden shortly before Mom and Dad started their baseball practice. Their practice was fairly serious with their holiday weekend game coming up on Friday; but I spent most of that time at the playground trying to keep up with four toddlers.

I probably had the better workout; so I'll be good to go for my game on Saturday.

Michael caught up with us at the park before the end of practice; and then he not only came home with us, but got added to the sleepover guest list so that he could both help me out with the twins and their friends; but not bother his parents by going home after Mom and Dad got back from their post-practice play time at the pub with their friends. We took Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden for a swim while Mom and Dad got ready to go out; watched a movie with them in the lounge after getting them ready for bed; and then tucked them in with enough time left to wind down with some quality cuddling before Mom and Dad got back again at a little before twelve-thirty.

The toddler sleepover plan must have had something to do with Violet and Dillon's decision to do a sleepover of their own – at his house; so Michael and I didn't really have to rush off to bed after Mom and Dad did go and crash for the night – so we didn't. We also had a bit of a nap together in the lounge; but woke up before two. Michael went downstairs to his room then; and I'm pretty much just doing this and my email check before heading back off to dreamland – though that won't be as much fun as it was while cuddled with Michael.

I guess this hasn't really been a very exciting day; but that'll change tomorrow with another work day ahead of the incoming family and the start of the holiday weekend. Getting more sleep would have been a good idea, but then so was the bonus cuddle time with Michael – especially since we have no idea how many chances we'll get to do that over the next couple of weeks while my cousins are here with us.

Maybe I should go and wake Michael up and cuddle with him for the rest of the night! ;^)

Okay, maybe not; but that would be fun. I'll settle for some happy dreams that involve him in a starring role and call it a night. Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

It's not late, and I'm already writing this because we're having a very quiet start to our holiday weekend – at least here at our house.

I don't really even have a lot to report today. While pretty much everyone else was working; I spent the morning doing most of my usual weekend chores – including mowing the lawn and weeding the gardens. It was after one by the time I finished that, so I got cleaned up and met up with Michael at the Inn. We had a fries and drinks lunch; went biking with Rowen and Tim during most of his break; and wrapped up that couple of hours of fun with a swim in the river before he needed to get back to work and Rowen and Tim both moved on too. I was home when Violet stopped in after working at the lab all day with Mom and Aunt Grace; so we had a little chat while she finished packing for her weekend away; and then she was off and running after a quick round of hugs and kisses to get Dillon at his house and hit the road for Woodvale.

We had dinner at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house, and got there in time to run next door and say goodbye to Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace before they left for Granite Park; but then they were on the road for their weekend away too; and it suddenly seemed very quiet for a while with just us; Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack. Christina was around town too, but with Josiah and his family for dinner; since her family didn't be get into town until later.

Even though I knew we weren't having a house full of guests this weekend; I still thought that we'd be busier – either helping Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, or hanging out with his family. That didn't happen, though, and since Michael, Rowen, and Tim were all busy with work or their own families; I didn't really have anything to do except take it easy and hang out with my family. All of the members of the inbound Johnson and McEwan families had not be able to get on the road early; so the first wave is just getting into town now – and they're over at Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick's house. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne are getting the McEwans and a few extras, except for Tory and Kyle. They'll be at the Inn all weekend as part of the tail-end of their honeymoon.

I have no idea why their collective families thought that it was a bad idea to put newlyweds in any house full of kid cousins. ;^)

Mom and Dad took Ethan, Ehlana, and me home by a bit after eight; I took the twins for a swim; and then we did the full bath and bedtime routine ahead of the Fourth of July festivities. I came up to my room once Ethan and Ehlana were tucked in and hopped into my Jacuzzi for a soak. I took care of a bit of family business while doing that; followed the tub time up with a short music practice to make sure I was ready for the parade tomorrow; and then hopped into bed with Mandy to do this and an email check.

My favorite outbound family members arrived in Woodvale and Granite Park safely, and while I'd like to have them here for the weekend – and the rest of our family; that's really only going to mean that we have a little less work around here and it isn't as if Michael and I will be lacking for family time between us. The extra sleep tonight is an unexpected bonus, so I should probably just wrap this up and take advantage of it. I'm sure there will be a lot more to cover with tomorrow's update, and though last year was really great, this is technically the first Fourth of July for Michael and me since we didn't 'officially' start dating until Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's wedding two days after the Fourth last year; so there's a very good chance we'll be in for another best-ever-so-far kind of day.

I am so going to be fully charged and ready for that; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, July 4, 2014

Happy Un-Independence Day, everyone!

I mean Happy Fourth of July!

Can you believe that Mom and I are already celebrating our fifth un-independence day here in Witch Falls?

We've had another amazing holiday that started out with Tai Chi; and got better when Michael advised us that we were all on the holiday breakfast guest list at his house. Mom and Dad rounded up a few quick donations to send along with Michael; we all got ready for the day; and then went to Michael's house to enjoy the awesome food that Jacob and Jake had cooked up for all of us.

In case I haven't mentioned it lately, girls – Michael's mine; I'm keeping him; and that isn't just because the food is better at his house!

That is a really great bonus, though! ;^)

It was also an amazing blast of fun with our families too; and I loved every minute of it – even the clean-up that we needed to rush through so that Michael and I could get to the school to help out with setting up 'our' trailer for the teen praise team. We were the first teens there, but the truck, trailer, equipment, and our driver were; so Michael and I got to work setting up the sound system. We had that nearly finished by the time Anna-Marie and Calvin joined us. Shane and Tegan were only a couple of minutes behind them, so once we were all together; we worked together to get the banners up along the sides of the trailer that covered the wheels; set up Anna-Marie's keyboard and Michael's guitar; and finished setting up the trailer the way she wanted it so that everyone watching would have at least two of us facing them at all times.

We had our sound check, warm-up, and a quick run-through of our little selection of songs; and Anna-Marie spent some time coaching Michael and me on performing instead of just singing. I'll be the first to admit that Michael and I haven't jumped around on stage, danced, or done anything else than just play and sing during any of our duets; so doing more than standing there and holding the microphone or stand didn't feel comfortable at first; but we had fun with it – and definitely entertained Anna-Marie, Calvin, Shane, and Tegan while we practiced 'our moves'. There was still time left before the start of the parade when we were finished our practice; so Michael and I wandered around to check up on what Rowen, Tim, and the rest of our friends were doing.

Rowen was with the school band, and they'd warmed up already too, so we took her along to track down Tim. He wasn't doing anything 'in' the parade, but he had spent the morning helping his father with getting equipment to the school yard; getting the bigger float trailers ready; and since his father was driving one of the tractor-trailers; he was going along for the ride. They were both still working, so we gave them a hand while talking with Tim; and that ended up taking all of the time we had left before needing to get back to our own trailers. We still had a bit of a wait, since we weren't right at the front of the parade column; so Michael and I mostly just chatted with the rest of our group and sipped on bottles of water to stay hydrated. It wasn't too hot or anything, but the sky was clear; and we were going to be singing a lot for the next three-quarters of an hour or so.

All of our songs were upbeat, and most of them were well-known enough for a lot of people to sing along with us. As with last year, it was different being in the parade instead of watching it; and missing out on seeing what everyone else was doing – though we could see some of the action ahead of us; and caught some of the parade behind us while we packed up out on River Road. I haven't really decided how to rank our parade time this year compared to last yet. The biking was definitely more exciting; but singing with Michael and the others was really special too even without the cool bike tricks and air time. having people sing along was awesome too, but then there were some moments when we just had people listening to our music and harmonies that made it near as special as the duets Michael and I have performed together.

I'm sure that you can guess that our favorite part of the parade was when we passed our families – for all six of us. Anna-Marie, Michael, and I all had our families watching the parade along Quarry Road between Witch Falls Road and the park; so that last section of the parade route was the best for us. It also felt a little strange to be singing with Anna-Marie while her oldest brother was hanging out with Christina and 'my' family; and Michael's cousin, Erica, was with Caleb and the rest of Anna's family.

I know, but I'm still getting used to some of the things that everyone else here just thinks of as small-town normal. It's no wonder that the six degrees of separation game never caught on here – you're an outsider if it takes more than two steps to connect virtually everyone in Witch Falls.

Moving along, once we were through the parade, our driver parked on River Road so that we could pack everything up and put it in his truck; and then Michael and I walked back to our homes with Anna-Marie and Calvin – the boys taking care of getting Anna-Marie's keyboard home. Michael and I only split up long enough to get changed at our houses. Mom and Dad already had our truck loaded up by then and Ethan and Ehlana were at the park with the other cousins and being spoiled by the grandparents; so I went over to Michael's house and helped out with getting their minivan loaded before we walked back over to the park and met up with my family. We helped out with getting food for the kids; and then staked out an area at the ball diamond so that we could both watch the game and cheer for our team.

Mom and Dad had done a food pick-up at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house before coming to the park; and then they'd met up with their team for warm-ups while we'd been busy getting food and drinks. The Olde Bakery Beagles were the away team for their match against the Hair Hounds; but I'll rather immodestly report that they had a huge advantage with the cheerleading squad. I missed competing against Miranda today, but, as she pointed out before taking the afternoon off – she didn't have a dog in the co-ed division race this year.

Yeah, I know, but dog-related jokes are apparently just part of the fun this season.

Some of those jokes got the Hair Hounds in trouble today. I know their players were having fun with it, but our players only got motivated to try harder the more 'olde dog' jokes they had thrown at them. Add that to the amazing cheerleading that Rowen and I led with a lot of help from Ehlana, Naomi, and most of the visiting Johnson and McEwan kids and teens; and it's no wonder that our team was up sixteen-to-eight going into the bottom of the seventh; and the Hounds only managed two more runs before giving up the last out of the game.

Michael and Tim didn't join our squad, but they stayed close and happily shared hugs and kisses with their respective girlfriends. They also stayed with us when I needed to help out with kid control after the game while the parents all went home to get showered and changed after playing ball during a couple of the hottest hours of the day; but that was fun for all of us too. We went for a swim; had an ice cream cone break; and watched one of the stage shows until Mom and Dad relieved me of duty and set me free until dinnertime.

The fun level kicked up a few notches then because Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I caught up with Rebecca and Lucas – and they'd been hanging out with Jenny and Jonathan.

Jonathan who, you ask? That would be Jonathan McEwan!

Take tween strange from the summer Jenny and Rebecca were having their little summer love thing with Martin and Jonathan and take that to a whole new level. First, and most obvious is that it had been Rebecca and Jonathan, so that had to be a little weird for both of them; but Jenny didn't seem to care at all. What she did care about is that he's fifteen going on sixteen; single; from out-of-town; and hot. That last criteria was her term, not mine; though I do think that he's handsome – in a cousins sort of way.

What is important to this report, though, is that Jenny's in love again, and since Jonathan will be here for the next two weeks; I have a feeling that she is going to make his holiday here very interesting. Rebecca may have found it weird to hang out with Jonathan again while she was also with Lucas; but she did like the idea of spending time with Jenny without anyone feeling like a fifth wheel. The eight of us spent the rest of the afternoon together. We played some of the charity games; went for another swim; and the four guys tossed a football around for a while with some of their friends while we – the girls – sat with some of our friends and watched the action while having cold drinks or frozen treats.

Michael and I needed to meet up with my family for dinner, and we were on kid control while food was being rounded up. Rebecca and Lucas had dinner with his family, and Michael's family just ended up with us so that Jake and Stephanie could hang out with Christina and Josiah; but there was one little surprise – Jonathan had Jenny with him for dinner too. I'm not suggesting that they needed to get a room at the Inn or anything, but the grin on his face and the hand-holding was all the evidence anyone needed to guess that Jenny had already caught her guy – at least for the next two weeks.

I have to wonder if that wouldn't have happened if Joel had been here for the holiday weekend with his father, but he wasn't; so we won't find out. It could get interesting if he does come to spend any time here while Jonathan's in town too; but we'll cover that if it does become a story sometime this summer.

Before I move on to the evening news, I'll add that Jonathan is probably feeling a lot better about his visit here now. He does have some friends here, but after spending his holidays hanging out with Chris and Martin for the past few years; I think he was feeling weird about being the only guy still coming for a holiday here this year. He wouldn't have changed it because he wants to spend time with Christina and Josiah, but they'll be working too; so Jenny will be able to help keep him entertained whenever he can't hang out with his sister.

I'll add two to all of our teen-rated plans for the next two weeks too.

Dinner felt like a bit of a rush, and then Michael and I had to help with the park clean-up before being set free again to hang out with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Jonathan again. We had time to play more games before the dance started, and then we spent most of the next three hours dancing or hanging out with our friends and families except for one swim intermission at around nine-thirty. I mostly danced with Michael, but we took Ethan and Ehlana out a few times too; and Jake and Stephanie messed with us by cutting in for one dance too.

I am never going to live down those little childhood games, but in this case, I got to dance with Jake Stone; so I'm okay with that.

Sorry, Stephanie and Michael; but you can't blame a girl for things like that when it involves her little girl crush.

There was a lot going on at the dance, and we had a great time; but there isn't really anything else specific to add to this report from my end of things. We didn't stay to the very end of the dance because we wanted to get a good spot to watch the fireworks from; and that was when the next blast of fun started – with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden wanting to come with us to do that instead of hanging out with Mom and Dad.

That was one of those moments for both the three sets of parents involved in that decision and Michael and me. I'm sure that Mom and Dad would have rather watched the fireworks with Ethan and Ehlana, but when Michael and I grabbed a blanket and some drinks and went to join the rest of our teen group; we had four toddlers with us. We got teased about it too, but the girls also thought that the kids were adorable – especially when Naomi sat with Ethan and held his hand and Ehlana did the same with Aiden. Both junior couples were with Michael and me, but we had support from Rebecca and Lucas on Michael's side; and Rowen and Tim on mine.

The fireworks show started about ten minutes after the dance ended; and we spent the next half-hour or so watching the always-amazing display that made for a perfect end to our celebration. That scene wasn't exactly romantic for Michael and me; but it was really great to share it with my brother, sister, and all of our best friends; so I was a very happy camper when it was time to rejoin our families; pack up our day camps; and head for home.

That was going to be the end of the night for Rebecca and Lucas until Michael invited him to stay overnight and got Jake to offer to give Lucas a ride home first thing in the morning so he could still do his chores. Jenny ended up doing a sleepover with Rebecca too, but that was mostly for the girl chat time that they're probably just getting to now. She could have stayed and played with us after we were finished the post-fireworks work and then gone home too; though maybe she'd been hoping that Jonathan would get an invite too.

We had to split up for the home end of that work, and then my house was play central for the eight of us while the kids and parents went to bed. Jake, Stephanie, Christina, and Josiah went for a swim before calling it a night too; but they did that at Michael's house so that they could have some time to hang out without a bunch of younger teens or kids around them.

It was after midnight by then, but we were still ready to party, so we swam; played glow in the dark Frisbee for a while; swam some more; and then split up for some couples-only time. Michael and I stayed by the river; Rowen took Tim home with her; Rebecca and Lucas went for a walk somewhere; and Jenny and Jonathan wandered down to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house to sit by the river there.

Note to future Magi who spend any time making out by the river – sound carries, so whatever you do does get passed on if you're not very, very quiet. I'd let Jenny and Jonathan in on that little news flash; but then they'd know that Michael and I heard way more than we needed to hear from upriver tonight.

And just in case you're wondering, that was not a problem for Michael and me. Our public cuddle time will never ever be anything that we'd be embarrassed to have anyone watching us see.

It was heading toward two-thirty when Michael went home, though; so this update is coming to you in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I may regret that by tomorrow night; but I definitely don't now because that was hands-down the best end to a fourth of July for me ever so far. I also don't have to worry about helping with a house full of guests in the morning and my weekend chores are done already; so I'll be able to play with my family tomorrow – even though Michael, Rowen, and Tim will all be busy for most of the day.

We are doing the holiday weekend sale shopping in the morning with the rest of the girls in the family, though, so I should get what sleep I can so I'll at least be ready for that – and my ball game at noon. I don't have a holiday update from anywhere else around the family; but I'll either hear about that tomorrow sometime or when Violet and Dillon get back here on Sunday with Dawn and Jillian – and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace bring Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden back for their holidays.

There could be some rain rolling through this weekend to get in the way of all of the fun, but the timing on the rain has been so hit and miss lately, that I'll just wait and see what happens. If it doesn't get in the way of our baseball, barbeques, or campfire; I'll be happy with whatever Mother Nature throws our way. Compared to the east coast today and their brush with Hurricane Arthur; we can't really complain if we get a thundershower or two roll through here.

Anyway, that is all for tonight, and I'm off to dreamland now; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Happy 5th of July!

No, I'm not losing it, though I am in a pretty good mood; and just thought that July fifth deserved to not get overlooked like it has every year in this country since we declared independence. You just know that all of the other fifths of the month are jealous of May fifth too!

My whimsical thoughts tonight might have a lot to do with having a fairly awesome day – though you probably shouldn't rule out that I just spent too much time out in the hot weather. ;^)

The day started out great with Tai Chi by the river for five because Michael was helping out at the Inn this morning. Not having a house full of guests turned out to be fairly awesome for Ethan, Ehlana, and me because Mom and Dad decided to just take us to the special holiday weekend breakfast buffet at the Inn and let Jacob and Jake Stone feed us again for the second morning in a row. That was an awesome surprise, and I especially loved the no clean-up part of that change in plans. Mom, Ehlana, and I also got to have a jump on the holiday weekend sales shopping; though we ended up going to a few stores a second time once we met up with Aunt Leanne, Aunt Deborah, and the rest of the girls.

I didn't get to shop with Rowen today because she was busy at the computer store all morning; but I collected her on the way home so that we could get ready for our baseball game and have a little snack lunch before going over to the park in time for our warm-ups. There was a scheduling conflict with our game and the family barbeque lunch at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house, so Rowen and I didn't have much of a cheering section for the first half of our game; but Mom and Dad brought Ethan, Ehlana, and a picnic lunch with them so that they could be there – even though that meant missing out on some of the family fun.

We – the Vortex – were up against the Avalanche, and since we lost our first game to them; we were fairly motivated to do better this time. The lack of cheerleaders – particularly Aunt Leanne – for most of the game made things a little less exciting for us, but we were playing a good game; and the Avalanche only had a lead after their half of the first inning – the only lead they'd manage to get all afternoon. They were able to tie up the game again in the third; but we took the lead back in the bottom half of that inning too.

Aunt Leanne did come over to catch the last couple of innings and brought some junior cheerleaders along, but we had the game pretty much in hand by then; and didn't need to play the bottom half of the last inning – earning a ten-to-six win that tied up our match-ups with the Avalanche and gave us a two win, one loss record at the half-way mark of our season. Mom and Dad went home with Aunt Leanne then, but Rowen and I took Ethan and Ehlana with us for the post-game ice cream celebration and then we eventually went for a cool-down swim with them – and most of the younger cousins – at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house before hurrying back to the park to cheer for Michael, Tim, and their team.

We missed almost the entire first inning, but trust me – Rowen and I really needed to clean up first after our game. The Lightning and Thunder had only exchanged runs in the first, and the game was tied going into the second; so at least Tim wasn't able to blame the loss on us later. They did lose by a score of eight-to-six, and Michael and Tim were both frustrated that their team could only manage one run in their last at-bat; but they didn't get up to bat anyway, so there wasn't anything they could have done about it. The difference between winning and losing ended up hinging on one swing of the bat anyway – a grand-slam homer that one of the Thunder players hit in the top of the fifth that had the Lightning taking chances and trying to play catch-up after that.

Rowen and I got razzed about it by the other guys, but we went along for the ice cream run because I wanted to spend that time with Michael before he needed to get back to the Inn. We jumped into the river for a micro-swim too; but then he needed to help with the dinner rush and I needed to get to the family barbeque dinner at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house.

That was already in-progress by then, so I made up a plate and joined 'the kids' by the river where they were having a picnic on blankets and towels – or sitting on the dock or benches. They told me all about the fun that I'd missed while watching a boring old baseball game; and I played as much as I ate because there always seemed to be at least a few kids at any given moment more interested in playing or swimming than they were in eating. Helping out with kid control allowed the parents to have more time to hang out and enjoy some uninterrupted chat time; but it also meant that I didn't get much of a chance to talk with any of the adults and older teens. Tory and Kyle, for instance, will be heading home again tomorrow afternoon; and I basically haven't talked to them at all beyond congratulating them and sharing a hug or two and a few words here and there.

While I'm thinking about couples, Jenny was at the barbeque with Jonathan – and for the rest of the evening. Since she was going to be helping out at the Inn tonight with Rebecca, I'll guess that she's suddenly changed her plans for the next couple of weeks. That probably didn't make too much of a difference tonight at the Inn because there are so many barbeques going on tonight anyway; but I hope she doesn't take the day off for the buffets tomorrow. Miranda and Jacob are going to need all the help they can get – which is why I'll be there all afternoon tomorrow for sure.

I helped out with the clean-up after dinner; played and swam with the kids until the campfire started; and then sat with Ethan, Ehlana, and the younger cousins and friends while Dad took the first shift for the campfire music and the grandfathers mostly handled the spooky campfire stories. Michael was set free from the Inn not long after that; so I had both a cuddle buddy and a music partner when we were drafted to provide some musical entertainment. His parents, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca were there by then too, along with the usual group of neighbors; so we had a fairly large audience. In addition to doing some sing-alongs; we were asked to sing a couple of duets too; and doing that together was as amazing as always – and more special to be singing just for some of our favorite people.

Just for the future record, tonight's duets were a duet version of 'Wanted' by Hunter Hayes that we heard and liked on YouTube by Haley and Michaels; and a version of 'Let it Go' from Frozen that we made up for the younger girls in the crowd who are currently in love with the latest Disney classic.

That little blast of fun was definitely one of the highlights of the day for me; though the quiet time with Michael after the campfire was special too. It actually didn't seem like very long before we got to that point in our day, and it really wasn't; because Mom and Dad took Ethan and Ehlana home for the night at a bit after eleven when the other younger kids started going home or into Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house for the night. The older teens were staying up later, but Michael and I opted to go back to my house then; help get Ethan and Ehlana into bed; and then go for a quiet swim for two before ending our night with some cuddle time by the river.

We were definitely tempted to spend that time in the lounge instead, since my cousins will be getting into town tomorrow night; but we'd both been running all day since dawn on just a few hours of sleep; so staying up late again wasn't really a good idea.

That's also why I'm going to wrap this up now and spend some quality time in the nap zone. Helping out at the Inn for all of the buffets will make for a very long day, but I also need to be ready for my first Sunday service on the teen praise team too. With the weather looking like it's going to cooperate so we can have the service in the park; that's going to be awesome; and I can hardly wait to find out what it's going to be like to share that experience with Michael. I'll let you know how that goes with the next update, so if you, reading this in the future can't wait to find out what happened; just flip the digital page. For me; I'll have to wait to find out in real time, which I'll try to speed up a bit with a little old-fashioned sleeping; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Happy 1st Anniversary, Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace!

Happy 1st Anniversary since we officially started dating, Michael!

Welcome home for your summer vacations Dawn, Jillian, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden! I guess that I should have done that for Jonathan, Kara, Eddie, and Nicole on Thursday, but since I didn't; consider it done now.

I'm glad that my cousins are here, and Dawn, Jillian, and I have had fun tonight after I got home from the Inn; but I've basically missed out on all of the action today up until then while I was busy helping out with the holiday weekend buffets. It's been a really long day too, so this is going to be one of those short reports.

Tai Chi by the river was good; breakfast at Michael's with his family was great; and the church service in the park was best-ever-so-far kind of awesome! Michael and I loved every minute of that hour and a half blast of high-energy fun, and I'll humbly agree with our families and friends that we – the teen praise team – did a great job today. There's so much more that I could write about that, but then again, if you're really interested; the service was recorded and is probably already posted on the church intranet site; so feel free to look it u and watch for yourselves.

The next nine hours or so was all work with a little bit of play time here and there. Rebecca, Jenny, and I worked together most of the time; though I helped Michael out on dishwashing duty a few times too when that end of the process started getting bogged down toward the end of each buffet sitting and the start of the next. It was also very hot again today – back into the triple digits both outside and in the kitchen. We did have regular, short breaks; but we spent most of that time jumping in the river for a quick swim; drying off; and getting something to drink and eat before getting right back into the fray.

My family was at the Inn for the last buffet of the night as a joint anniversary party and welcome home dinner for the cousins; but I didn't join them for that – even though Miranda tried to get me to do that. I've got one or two weeks to spend with my cousins, and while I missed out on the anniversary party too; I wouldn't have spent any time to speak of with my aunt and uncle anyway – I'd have been on kid control. I was also a sweaty, wrung-out mess by then too; so I'm sure that my family and the other diners were just as happy not to have me in the room with them; if you know what I mean.

Michael, Rebecca, Jenny, and I were set free a little before the clean-up was done and Jake and Stephanie were ready to close up for the night; so we went back to my house; Jonathan joined us there; and we went swimming for an hour or so – along with Dawn, Jillian, Violet, Dillon, Ethan, and Ehlana. Jake and Stephanie joined us after they were done work too; and then they hung out with Violet and Dillon for a while before going home with Michael and Rebecca at around eleven o'clock. Dillon went home then too, while Jonathan and Jenny headed off somewhere to hang out together for however long they stayed up before going to bed.

I had some chat time with Violet, Dawn, and Jillian after helping to get Ethan and Ehlana off to bed; and then we collectively decided to get some sleep and finish playing catch-up in the morning. Dawn and Jillian each have their own rooms this year, since that's what they wanted to do; so Mandy and I are on our own tonight – which makes doing this and the rest of my usual bedtime computing much easier. We're just doing a no-plan play day tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll also going to be busy, and camping may be an option too; so I'd better finish this up and call it a night.

This Fourth of July holiday weekend might not rate best-ever-so-far for me, but it has been awesome; and I'm sure that the next couple of weeks will be just as amazing!

Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted, but for now; until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, July 7, 2014

We're taking a chance on when or if the rain will come overnight or in the morning and having our first camping adventure of the cousins' vacation. It's been a fun, lazy play day; with a touch or three of tween and teen weird here and there to make the day fairly interesting.

This will be out of order for the day, but first up on the tweird list was having Dawn and Jillian discovered by the local boys – and two of them in particular. The fact that they're getting noticed isn't a surprise, but when one of the boys in question is Vanessa's younger brother; that definitely rates fairly high on the tweird scale for me. Vanessa will likely think so too, if she hasn't heard that Tommy, and his best friend, Julian Sparks, were hanging out around us pretty much every chance they got today. Dawn and Jillian seemed to be happy enough with the attention; though they haven't decided whether they're interested in hanging out with Tommy and Julian or not.

While we did pretty much have a play day all day, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I also had Ethan, Ehlana, and all of the younger cousins with us too; so there was a fair bit of supervision involved too. It was also really hot today, so in addition to the biking, playground time, and exploring; we also went swimming a lot and had two Emporium ice cream runs to help us keep cool. Rebecca played with us quite a bit, and Jenny was with us too; but she and Jonathan spent most of their time together, and they weren't all that interested in playing with the younger kids. They're both camping with us tonight too, but again, Rebecca is helping out with younger cousins – including Sophia and Jessica; while Jenny and Jonathan are pretty much off in their own world tonight. Since they do have tent mates, I'm sure they'll get to their own tents eventually; but they're not there yet as I'm writing this.

In addition to our play time, we also had lunch together at our house and a barbeque dinner here too – though that meal was pot luck; and most of the grandparents, aunts, and uncles pitched in to supply the food. I didn't have to help with that work, or the clean-up; but I was on the campground set-up crew and had ongoing kid control before, during, and after dinner. Michael and Tim had their ball practice tonight after dinner; so we took the kids to the school playground to keep them entertained for another hour or so; and then we all went for a long swim until it was nearly dark and we could start our little campfire.

We'd collected extra kids and teens by then, and while some, like Naomi and Aiden, were staying overnight; most were just hanging out for the swim, campfire fun, and the snacks and drinks. Michael and I were in charge of the musical side of the campfire entertainment, and then we let Tim and some of the other teens take care of the scary stories. We also skipped most of the rest of the campfire after eleven too because we put all of the younger kids into their tents then; and stayed nearby to keep an eye on them – or deal with any late night toddler issues.

The mid-range kids – Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara; along with all of the pre-teens joined us at the tents by midnight. Rebecca came with them, but Rowen, Tim, Dawn, and Jillian stayed at the fire pretty much until it was nearly out – even after the other teens went home for the night. Jenny and Jonathan had gone for a walk by then, and while I'm wishing that Michael and I had a bit of alone time tonight too; I don't really need to know what they're up to while off on their own.

I did almost miss adding in the cameo appearance at the campfire from Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah; but their visit was fairly short – and mostly to say goodnight to the younger kids before they went to bed. Since we're camping, Dillon's staying overnight with Violet, though I don't think that whether we're in the house or not matters anymore; since they've apparently crossed that bridge in Woodvale now.

Moving along, once we had some more support, going for another swim was an option for Michael and me; so we did that and then wrapped up our night with some cuddle time and chat with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Dawn, and Jillian before we were all ready to turn in for the night. We're tentatively planning a canoe to the whirlpool adventure tomorrow with a six and up age limit; but that plan might change depending on the weather. There's a lot that I haven't covered from today, starting with Tai Chi and breakfast to all of the play time details; but it's been a long, hot day; and I'm tired out, so that's all I've got for tonight. Day One of the cousins' vacation hasn't exactly been best-ever for them; but they are all having fun; so I'd say we're doing pretty good so far – and the fun is really just getting started. I'm going to need what sleep I can get to be ready if we do paddle out to the whirlpool and back, though; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

We did have a little thunderstorm roll through early this morning, but other than waking us up and giving us a nice little light show to watch; it didn't really get in the way of our fun – and we stayed nice and dry in our tents.

Okay, not all of us stayed dry, but for those guys who went out to play in the rain; that was fun too.

It was clear and sunny by morning, and Tai Chi by the river was awesome – especially because Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne brought Zack along and joined us today. They helped out with breakfast too, but with a big group to feed on a weekday morning; that was all easy-food options with minimal clean-up. I am not at all surprised that not only all of the bakery treats, but the boxes of pop tarts were demolished – along with most of two boxes of cereal, a loaf of bread, and a fair bit of milk and juice.

For most of us, getting cleaned up and ready for the day involved jumping in the river for a swim; and then we rushed around to pack up our campsite; get canoes and gear into the river for our whirlpool adventure; and packed a picnic. Doing all of that took a while, and we added a few extra kids and teens to the group by the time we left – including Tommy and Julian. They just happened to be wandering around on their bikes and stopped in to see what we were doing when they noticed all of the action going on in the back yard, and after checking with Dawn and Jillian first; they were given the invitations to join us for the day.

By the way, guys – you do know that girls don't actually believe those 'just passing by' kind of lines, right?

Anyway, it was heading toward ten when we finally started out upriver; with the only sad part of that was seeing the disappointed younger kids watching us go – including Ethan, Ehlana, and all cousins and friends under six. That especially annoyed Eddie, since he's five; but the age cut-off was really only because we didn't want to split up Kaitlyn and Kara just because Kaitlyn was a few months younger. Mom and the aunts had plans for the younger kids anyway, and they had fun; but it would have been too much for us to add that many toddlers for the day and still have fun with our cousins and friends.

Some of us had more fun than others, but other than saying that; I'm not going to mention the teen drama that is Jonathan and Jenny this week. I know they're older, but if Michael and I had moved that fast last summer; we'd have needed to get married by late August!

Without having Lucas around, that part of our canoe trip was weird for Rebecca, but she just hung out with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me – and with Jessica, Dawn, Jillian, and the other girls. We took our time paddling up to the whirlpool, and some of us went for a swim or two along the way. Going for a swim was first on our to-do list when we got there too; and then we had our picnic lunch before getting back to our whirlpool play time. The usual water toys helped to keep the younger kids entertained, and Tim had the guys toss a foam football around for a while. Rebecca, Rowen, and I also played unofficial lifeguards; though that wasn't really a problem since we didn't have any novice swimmers in the group.

By the time we packed up and headed for home at three, we already had some tired out kids, but they were all in one of the three-person canoes; so it wasn't really a problem if they had a nap or two on the way back. We picked up the pace a bit for the downriver half of our trip; and made it home by a little after five. There was teen and parental support for getting the canoes unloaded and most of them put away in the storage barn again; and then we were on the move again – over to Uncle Adam's and Aunt Leanne's house for another barbeque dinner. Not everyone stayed for that – Rebecca wanted to go home by then, and some of the other kids and teens had other plans; but Jenny, Tommy, and Julian all stayed for dinner – and the evening.

The last part of that didn't really affect me that much because Dawn and Jillian found out that they were doing a sleepover at Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's with Jaimie and Kaitlyn while Jayden was at our house with Ethan for the night. What that meant for me was that once Dawn and Jillian had packed overnight bags and headed out; I pretty much had the rest of the evening to hang out with Michael, Rowen, and Tim. We went for a bike ride and a swim, and then Rowen and Tim headed over to his house when Michael and I were recruited to do the bedtime story with Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden and then tuck them in for the night.

That was convenient for us; since we followed that up with some quality alone time in the lounge before Michael needed to get home again. My hot factor scale is probably a bit out of calibration right now since we aren't having enough alone time right now, but we had fun; and there are advantages to only having swimsuits, tees, and shorts on when it comes to clothing-optional play time. This is the first time that I've written about anything like that since our one-year dating anniversary, so I'll also mention for the record that we're both very happy with how we've each developed over the past year. There is some weird that goes along with sharing those intimate changes and experiences, and maybe that has something to do with why so many teens go through these years with multiple boyfriends or girlfriends, but for Michael and me; it's all just really amazing – and occasionally weird and funny.

Michael needed to get home in decent time so that he could get some sleep before needing to be at the Inn for the breakfast shift. He's doing that because we have another birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon. Elliott's party is at Quarry Lake again this year; so we definitely don't want to miss it. The cousins will be spending the afternoon out there too, and I'm sure there will be lots of other kids and teens there as usually happens when a large group of kids and teens from town will be out there anyway. It should be another awesome day, so though a little more play time with Michael would have been nice; I'm okay with a chance to catch up on some sleep too.

Violet and Dillon may have been thinking the same thing, because he's at home tonight and she's here – even though the only kids in the house are on the second floor tonight; so another sleepover would have been an option. Having a little chat with Violet on her way to bed was nice, though – especially since we haven't gotten to do that much in the last couple of weeks.

I don't have anything else for now, and I really do want to be at full-power tomorrow; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Elliott!

It isn't totally official yet, but I'll guess that Elliott was happiest about spending his special day with Nora. That little teen news story hasn't developed quite as fast as the Jenny-Jonathan story; but it has when you consider that Elliott is a farm kid and Nora's in town. They have the same issues as Rebecca and Lucas when it comes to spending time together. That might actually be one of the only reasons they haven't 'officially' become a couple. Word with the girls is that Nora's more than a little surprised to find herself interested in one of the 'farm kids' That's apparently quite a shift in perception for her – and probably more than a little scary.

They weren't the only teen couple story at the party today – Lily and Kris were having fun together too, so I expect it's just a matter of time before they join the couples club too. Jenny and Jonathan are a hot topic with the girls too, with 'hot' being the operative word. They didn't get kicked out of the campground for inappropriate behavior or anything; but they are certainly pushing the boundaries – particularly with all of the young kids around. At the low end of the hot spectrum, but earning some attention too, was Dawn and Jillian with Tommy and Julian.

The boys were not invited to go along with my family and cousins today, but they were able to hitch a ride there with Vanessa; since she was there for Elliott's party. Yes, that was fairly weird to have her there and watching her little brother spending all of his time trying to impress my cousin – and he was definitely interested in Dawn while Julian was infatuated with Jillian. Michael and I don't have any problems with Vanessa anymore, but she isn't interested in being my buddy either. She seemed to be a bit annoyed today, though I'm not sure if that had anything to do with her brother and Dawn or something else. I am sure that she's not happy with her single status right now – particularly now that Nora's getting involved with Elliott. She attracted some interest from more than a few guys this afternoon; but nobody she seemed to be interested in.

Before I get on with the party report, though, let's back up and cover the morning action. Michael wasn't with us for Tai Chi because he was at the Inn by then, but we still managed to enjoy our workout without him – even if I did really miss the good morning hugs and kisses. With just the five of us, we had an easy-breakfast, and then I helped Mom around the house for a while until she needed to get to the lab – though she only went there for an hour or so to set Andrew up with his work for the day before coming home again to start getting a picnic ready for our trip to Quarry Lake. Rowen and Tim were working this morning too, so I spent a couple of hours in the office, and then helped Mom again until after we had the minivan loaded up and ready to go.

Elliott's party didn't start until after lunch, but we headed for Quarry Lake at noon – while Mom had driving support from other parents and teens during their lunch breaks. Michael didn't come with us then, since he was helping out with the lunch rush, but he did get a ride to the party with Rowen and Tim when they came out. I spent that time helping Mom with kid control. Dawn and Jillian helped too, but Jonathan was off and playing with Jenny pretty much from the time we got there – except for carrying one load of gear to the spot next to the beach where we set up our day camp. We took the kids for a swim once that first blast of work was done; and then I had time to both help with getting them fed and having some food too before needing to move over to where Elliott's parents were setting up for his party.

That meant helping out with a bit more work, but that was fun too because I started working with Elliott's younger sister, Kylie, and her best friend, Emma Norton; and then we soon had Michael, Rowen, and Tim with us too. Emma and Kylie were then set free to go and play; so they went and hooked up with Dawn and Jillian instead of hanging out with Elliott and his friends. It was play time for us too by then, and while Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had a little play time here and there with Ethan, Ehlana, my cousins and their collective friends; we spent most of our time with Elliott, his family, and our friends.

We swam, played football, Frisbee, and volleyball; and basically had a blast all afternoon. Michael and I took one break when Mom needed some help getting ready to head home for dinner and have everything loaded into the minivan by the time her driving helpers returned to pick up the kids and teens. She wasn't on her own with the kids – Grandma and Grandpa were there; they had babysitting support from Alicia and a couple of her friends; and Violet and Stephanie had come out for a couple of hours too. They were all still busy keeping up with all of the kids, though, so I'm glad we could help out – even though we weren't able to do that during dinner or at the park while Mom and Dad were busy with their baseball practice.

Elliott's party was definitely more fun, and he had a pretty big family and friends turnout for the dinner part of the day – with most of his family coming out to the campground after finishing work for the day. The meal was standard barbeque options, but it was the chat and play time that was the most fun. We weren't social outcasts or anything today, but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I did end up sitting with Kylie and Emma; and Elliott's older sister, Susan and her boyfriend. The boys talked football, and Emma and Kylie were mostly happy to entertain us with their stories about the boys who had spent the afternoon trying to impress them – and Dawn and Jillian. They weren't making any love connections today, but that isn't all that surprising – they're both twelve now; but they're also just going into Grade Seven in September. Most of the boys in their year are still eleven and behind them on the growth chart; while the boys who are a grade ahead of them might not look at them as having serious girlfriend potential until the fall. I know, that's weird; but it happens – Grade Seven and Eight is okay, but Six and Eight isn't.

I did find their perspective on Dawn, Jillian, Tommy, and Julian entertaining; though not necessarily very accurate. They're seeing more there than I do; but that's easy to do when Dawn and Jillian are having fun with the guys. There are even some genuine sparks there with Jillian and Julian, but I wouldn't say the same for Dawn and Tommy. The boys were still at the campground during the birthday dinner and the rest of the evening while waiting for their ride home again with Vanessa; but they weren't at the dinner; and didn't hang out with us at all until it was nearly dark and time to pack up and head for home.

There was more swimming, football, and volleyball after dinner; including a couple of matches that attracted more attention than just from our party group. Considering how badly Tim wants to play football for our team this year, it seems like more than a coincidence that he's getting more chances to play at events like birthday parties this summer; though that's at least partly because he isn't the only boy our age interested in the sport – especially with our team being the defending State Champions for our small-school division. It doesn't even seem to matter to any of the guys that even Coach Robinson has very low expectations for this season without Kyle on the team. Add to that the fact that not very many niners make the team each year because of the size difference to the older guys; and most of the guys in that group of hopefuls have their goals set a bit too high.

No, I'm not saying that about Michael and Tim, but then they've actually worked a lot harder than most of the other guys – including many of the players who will be returning to the team this year. Tim wants to do more than they have been – particularly over the last couple of weeks; but Michael's been able to remind him that what they are doing involves a lot of exercise anyway; and is a lot more fun – particularly when it involves girlfriends in swimsuits.

I didn't mean to get off-track and on the football topic; but it seems to be unavoidable right now when Tim's spending so much time thinking and talking about it with Michael – and with Rowen and me. Add in a bunch of other football fans like we had today; and it's a wonder anything else goes on at all. Oh wait – there's that whole girls in swimsuits thing that does manage to distract the boys now and then. That would explain why swimming was high on the fun list too – particularly since it's been sunny and hot today.

Dad drove out to get Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me after their ball practice, and stayed long enough to have a chat with some of the other parents while the party clean-up was going on. I'd missed the dinner and park action at home tonight, and found out that we also had a bonus overnight guest too. Kara was spending the night with Jaimie and Kaitlyn at Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's; and Eddie and Jonathan are at Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah's; so we ended up with Nicole so she wouldn't feel left out tonight. I'm sure that Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne aren't too disappointed to have a comparatively quiet night with just Zack and Christina home with them, though with the other kids and teens away; they might have Josiah staying overnight too.

Rowen and Tim didn't stay long after we got back before moving on to spend some time at his house; but Michael stayed for a bedtime swim with Ethan, Ehlana, and my cousins. He helped me with getting the twins tucked in for the night too; and then I spent a little time saying goodnight to him in a mostly non-verbal sort of way before he went home and I came up to my room to hang out with Dawn, Jillian, and Nicole. While Dawn, Jillian, and I stayed up and watched movies in the lounge; Nicole didn't last an hour before falling asleep; so we managed to move her into my bed without having her wake up – which is why Mandy and I have an extra cuddle buddy.

Violet joined us for a while too after she got home – without Dillon; and we had a fun little chat with her that included some joking around about how much fun they could have with sending pictures of Dawn and Jillian with Tommy and Julian to Uncle Rick and Jillian's father. That was a fun way to end the day, but we stayed up a bit too late too; which is why I'm just getting around to writing this update now.

We're going to have a very busy day tomorrow, so I should get to sleep soon. Our Thursday night camping adventure is confirmed already, and seems to be growing way out of proportion with the potential to be the biggest of the summer; but we'll see what happens. We also have the grandparents' annual lunch at the Inn tomorrow, and Rowen, Rebecca, Jenny, Emma, and I have our baseball practice tomorrow evening. There aren't any specific morning or afternoon plans, but I'll likely just be spending the day playing with Ethan, Ehlana, our cousins, and friends. I'm sure that a lot of swimming, biking, and playground time will be involved. I should also mention that dinner and camping will be at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's – and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's; so Mom and Dad are going to get a kid-free night. I'll predict that they aren't teen-free too; unless Violet and Dillon decide to stay at his house – or go camping with us. They might pick option number two if Christina, Josiah, Jake, and Stephanie do that too; but Violet didn't mention that during or chat tonight if they're thinking about doing that.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'm ready to get started on my nap, and that's pretty much all I have for tonight anyway; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, July 10, 2014

We could get rained on sometime early this morning, but our camping adventure became too big to change without disappointing a lot of kids and teens; and we won't melt with a little rain anyway. We've also had a blast today, and will be doing a buffet breakfast at the Inn in the morning; so I seriously doubt that anyone will mind if we do get a bit wet when it's time to get up in a few hours.

Let's start with the morning events and I'll get to the camping part of the day soon. Tai Chi by the river was better again with Michael joining us; though that meant he missed out on the camping dinner while helping out at the Inn during the dinner rush. Breakfast was uneventful and we just had a normal weekday meal; and then it was time for me to get to work for a while. I gave my room a quick once-over; and then mowed the lawn today instead of leaving it for Saturday when it would get in the way of our last family play day of the vacation for all of the younger cousins before they head home on Sunday. I had that done in time to go for a swim with Ethan, Ehlana, and our cousins; and then I got cleaned up for our lunch at the Inn with the Grandparents.

That was a blast of fun, and though Ethan, Ehlana, and I weren't at the table with Grandma, Grandpa, and our Proctor and Rice family cousins; we were right next to them with Mom, Dad, Violet, and Dillon; and were able to talk with them quite a bit too. I'll do an update on it on the weekend, or maybe next week; but one of the top chat stories today was Grandma and Grandpa's upcoming trip. They're going to be taking Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden home; they'll have a visit with everyone there; and then head out on their Eastern Asia trip. I'd like to spend more time with them between now and then, since they're going to be away for six weeks; but that probably isn't going to happen when I'll be busy with my cousins most of the time instead.

We did have a fun time together at lunch, though; and then I was off and running again – or biking – for the afternoon. Michael was set free to hang out with us when we were finished at the Inn, so I got to have a bit of bonus time with him too – even though we were still pretty much busy the entire time keeping up with the younger kids. The biking, swim time, and playground action was all really great, and then we moved on to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's when Michael needed to be back at the Inn so that the younger kids could keep playing while being supervised and I could lead the camp set-up crew of older kids and teens.

Using Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's, and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's back yards was an option; so we put the tents along the lot line, stretching away from the river. that was intentional because Patrick and Scott had gotten permission to use the Emerson's back yard for a camping adventure with most of their friends too; so by the time we had all of the tents set up, we practically had one big campground with just a bit of play space between the two groups of tents. There has also been a lot of inter-mingling anyway; since siblings or cousins are split up at 'our' campsite or 'theirs'.

I set up the tents for my cousins and friends with help from Rowen, Tim, Jonathan, Jenny, and some other teens; but left the rest of the work up to the other kids and teens that were joining the adventure through other invitations. Dawn and Jillian helped out a bit too, though they were also keeping an eye on the younger cousins – and hanging out with Tommy, Julian, and some of the other tweens as they joined the party. While we were busy with all of that, the parents were collectively putting together dinner for a gang that they didn't really even have an accurate number for. The good news there for them was that other parents dropped off food to help out; which meant that we pretty much ended up with a pot-luck barbeque dinner with a lot of different options. For instance, we ended up with a total of fourteen salad options – though there were several that were the same but different recipes.

We needed to eat early enough for some of us to get to ball practices, but that worked out for the parents too because they were able to feed the kids and teens and then get rid of them for an hour and a half or so and enjoy their own meal in relative peace. We've got two weekends off before our next game; so our baseball practice was fairly relaxed tonight; but the big news at the park was on the football field anyway. With the camping going on tonight, Tim had enough guys to have a scrimmage football game, and since Michael was set free from the Inn when Rebecca was; he was able to join in for their mini-practice. From what I heard tonight; the guys are going to try and have a game every Thursday night during our practices; so Rebecca, Rowen, and I better get used to football talk with the guys at our Thursday camping nights too.

While we were busy with baseball or football, Ethan, Ehlana, the rest of our cousins, and most of the other kids and teens hung out at the playground or went swimming. Moe swimming was at the top of the list when we got back to our campground after baseball; so the parents had a bit more of a break while we were doing that – though they also got a campfire set up and snacks and drinks ready for when we started doing that once it started getting dark. There was some more play time in between the swim and the campfire that included a volleyball game that Patrick and some of his friends started up; but Michael and I spent most of that time playing with the younger kids. Tim and Rowen played volleyball too, but Rebecca and Lucas played with us.

I wonder if Rebecca has noticed that he's as good with little kids as Michael is? He is definitely going to be one of those really good fathers some day.

Moving along, we really have ended up with a mass camping night here, so it actually felt a bit crowded around the campfire – though some of the teen couples disappeared for a while here and there. Canoe rides for two; walks; or sneaking off to make out in one of the tents were all popular choices. I wish that Michael and I had been able to do that too, but we stayed at the campfire and helped to keep the younger kids entertained until it was time to get them ready for bed and tucked into their tents. The music and scary stories were as fun as always, so it wasn't as if we didn't have a great time anyway; but Michael and I really aren't doing very well on the making more alone time for us part of our summer plans so far this year.

We were entertained all night through until we crawled into our respective tents a half-hour or so ago, though; so let's cover a few of the highlights. After putting Ethan, Ehlana, and most of the younger kids into their sleeping bags, we rejoined the campfire action; played some more music; chatted with the other teens and older kids; and then went for a moonlight swim before getting dry again by the fire until it was nearly out. There was a lot of teen and tween action going on around the campground tonight too, but Rebecca, Lucas, Rowen, Tim, Michael, and I mostly just hung out by our tents and enjoyed the show.

I haven't talked with Dawn or Jillian about it yet, but they both went for walks with Tommy and Julian after we put the last embers of the fire out; and were gone for a half-hour or so. While I don't have any details, there seems to be a very good chance that goodnight kisses were involved in those walks. I'll keep you posted on those stories. Romance wasn't the only tween or teen drama going on; and pranks are practically a given when you get a large group of boys together. Lucas, Tim, and Michael even needed to get in on that a bit to help defend our campground from Patrick, Scott, and some of their buddies. That was mostly entertaining too, though a couple of the pranks didn't work out very well; and some intervention was required to keep the peace. I'll skip over the awkward moments that mostly involved make-out sessions that were either too loud or accidentally interrupted. I'm sure that everyone reading this knows about things like that going on at any major teen camping event around here; and I definitely don't need to name names – not even for the sake of posterity or historic detail.

While we didn't get any alone time, Michael and I did spend some time cuddling while chatting with our friends and waiting for most of the campers to wrap up their fun and go to bed. That took until after one-thirty; and we were ready to call it a night by then too; though Rowen and I have been talking quietly while I've been doing my nightly computer checks and taking care of a bit of family business work. As usual, we've got Ehlana and Naomi with us; but they haven't woken up at all, and probably won't until morning.

Before I wrap this up, I should add in a few details that I've skipped. We don't have any college teens camping with us tonight; though we're also not the youngest teens either. Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah were all with us for dinner, and they stopped in with Jake and Stephanie for part of the campfire fun; but for some reason; they all picked warm, comfortable beds instead of tents and sleeping bags – and a gang of kids and teens. I don't really need to wonder why, since the three couples are all taking advantage of kid-free houses to enjoy their own sleepover adventures.

No details required there either!

Okay, it's after two o'clock, and rain or shine; I'll be up early to help out with getting all of the younger kids ready to go to the Inn for our breakfast buffet, so it's time to wrap this up and get started on my nap. In addition to the breakfast, we also have a trail ride tomorrow afternoon; and a (mostly) family-only dinner and play evening. I want to be awake and ready for all of that, so that's it for now; and, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, July 11, 2014

I'm going to keep this short because I have a bedroom and lounge full of cousins tonight; and I only have a few minutes to do this between movies while we're in our second intermission.

The weather forecasters were wrong in a good way this morning, and we didn't get the rain. That made everything more fun, whether it was Tai Chi by the river or the campground clean-up after breakfast at the Inn. The buffet there was awesome; and we had a blast with our families. Most of them met up with us at the Inn too; though we were also mostly at kid, teen, or adult tables while having our food.

The camp teardown took a while, and then we had time for a bit of biking at the park until lunch time that we didn't take the younger kids with us for so that we could play on the trails. Lunch was at my house, and really just a snack; and then we had volunteer drivers ready to take us out to the ranch for our trail ride or the corral adventure that the younger kids were doing. That was an awesome blast of fun, and while I don't have time for it this summer; the ride did have me missing the weekly lessons we've done every other summer I've been here.

We mostly just stayed close to home and swam after getting back from our trail ride; and Dawn, Jillian, and I were recruited to help out with getting dinner ready. We weren't doing a big family meal, but instead had separate dinners for each house where cousins were spending the night. We did get Grandma and Grandpa with us, but Ethan was with Jayden at Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's; Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne had Jonathan, Jenny, and Eddie; Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah had Kara and Nicole; and we had Dawn, Jillian, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn. We didn't have Tommy and Julian with us for dinner; but they came over to hang out with Dawn and Jillian after dinner for a while – until the chick flick marathon started after dark.

That's why I didn't get to spend any time with Michael, but I'm pretty sure that he was just ready to go home and get some sleep after staying and helping Jake and Stephanie until the Inn closed tonight. The movie marathon with Ehlana, Naomi, and our cousins has been fun; and Violet sent Dillon home early so that she could hang out with us too. It might be a while before I get to sleep, but I hope it isn't too late; because we've got another Quarry Lake adventure planned for tomorrow – this time with all of our family going along – and a bunch of our friends too.

I'll let you know how that goes, but I'm getting called back to the movies already; so that's all for tonight.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

I'll write up a double-update tomorrow if I have time, but it's going on three o'clock; and I'm beat; so this is going to be extremely short.

We spent the early morning getting ready for our Quarry Lake picnic and adventure; spent the day there having a total blast on an awesome, hot summer day; had a barbeque dinner and campfire at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's that the teens stayed up way too late for; and then I spent some time saying goodnight to Michael out by the river behind his house after going for a late-night swim. Dawn, Jillian, and I sat up after that having a chat that was mostly about boys; and now I'm ready to crash for a few hours.

I'm going to do that right now; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

We don't have any fewer people here tonight, but it seems a lot quieter; and we're definitely going to bed a lot earlier.

Our day started out with rain, and while that meant Tai Chi was indoors; the timing was decent and it was already drying up outside by the time we needed to walk to church. It was a busy travel morning at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's houses with getting the younger kids ready to travel; but that didn't affect us at all since Dawn and Jillian are staying for another week. We didn't get to spend much time on the goodbyes with the rest of our younger cousins, though; because they hit the road with their drivers and chaperones right after church.

That meant saying our quick goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa – and we won't see them until the week before Labor Day. They've spent the rest of today – and will spend Monday - with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Jayden, and their family in Granite Park before heading for the airport and their Tuesday morning flights that will eventually have them in Japan for the first leg of their trip. Josiah and Christina had volunteered to take Kara, Eddie, and Nicole to the half-way point for their trip home; and Aunt Leanne and Aunt Deborah were both very grateful for their help with that – grateful enough that they bought them dinner at the Inn tonight when they got home again.

Okay, the whole family went out to the late buffet anyway; but it's the thought that counts, right?

I should have said that the whole family except for one went to dinner at the Inn. I was already there and didn't join them. We were too busy in the kitchen to take the time off to do that; so I worked with Michael to try and keep up with the dishwashing that kept falling behind because we were a bit short-staffed and busier than expected for the beautiful summer day we've had since the rain stopped this morning.

Michael was at the Inn most of the time since he left the church after the service until it closed for the night; and didn't even take much of an afternoon break. I was at home for lunch and played with my family and cousins for a while this afternoon; but went back to the Inn with Michael after he only came over long enough for a swim and a visit before needing to get back to the kitchen again. That didn't give me time to entertain Dawn and Jillian as much as I should have, but they spent the rest of the afternoon with Violet and Dillon; and it sounded as though they had fun when we did our bedtime chat a little while ago.

I don't really have much more news from today. Michael and I stayed until all of the work was done at the Inn; we went for a swim at his house with Jake, Stephanie, Rebecca, Jenny, and Jonathan; and then we were both ready to call it a night. Ethan and Ehlana were still up when I got home, but ready for bed and waiting for me to tuck them in for the night. I was happy to do that and spend the little bit of time with them, and the bedtime chat with Dawn and Jillian was fun too; but I was ready for some Jacuzzi time after that; and had a quick soak without any multi-tasking. I've only been in bed with Mandy for about twenty minutes now, but I've already finished my 'must-do' work and the rest of my usual nightly computing – thanks to doing a bit of Magi cheating to make that happen.

It's time to get some sleep soon, but before I do that; let's cover a bit more of the action that I missed writing about yesterday.

First up, I wanted to mention that we had a very large group with us at Quarry Lake – not just our collective family; but quite a few of our friends too. Not all of the parents could go because they were working in stores, but if they couldn't go; they had support to get the kids out there – either with grandparents or aunts, uncles, and cousins. In addition to our family, we had the Bassetts; Emersons; Palmers; Faulkners; some of the Nortons; Burroughs; Landrys; Sheldons; and a handful of others. Michael and Rebecca both got to go with us, and while Lucas didn't get to come and spend the entire day with us; he and his Dad did blow off work for a couple of hours to come and play with his Mom, sister, and younger brother so he could have a little fun time with Rebecca too.

On the teen and tween drama side of things, Jonathan and Jenny were mostly good whenever they were around us – and all of the parents; but they also disappeared for long stretches of time. I have no idea where they'd found to go in a busy campground; but there was no doubt that they were having fun entertaining themselves wherever they were. Tommy and Julian had been invited along too, and they were on their best behavior too with all of the parents around – though in their case, that was more along the lines of cutting back on the goofiness. Since Dawn and Jillian really appreciated that; maybe they'll figure out that they'll make better impressions on the girls of their summer dreams if they tone it down a bit and not try so hard to impress them.

On the adult front, I'm not going to detail all of the action; but there was definitely some hot going on there that had nothing to do with the weather. I'll still put Aunt Leanne and Mom at the top of my hottest pregnant women in swimsuits list; but I can also assure you that Aunt Deborah and Aunt Grace got way more attention from guys at the lake than Uncle Nick and Uncle Mark were comfortable with – and my aunts definitely looked hot. Ditto that for Mom and Aunt Leanne in the not-pregnant classification.

Taking a little side trip; I'd like to mention that it's really great to see Mom getting more self-confident every year. I've always known that she's amazing and beautiful; but she hasn't thought of herself as either in the past. Dad gets a lot of credit for that; but then they're helping each other to be more than they were before meeting and falling in love. I'll leave that there; and just be really happy that all of Mom's dreams are coming true – just as mine are!

Which brings us to the Michael and me part of the Quarry Lake update. We had an amazing day with Rowen, Tim, and our families and friends. I may have a few years to go before being a match for Mom when it comes to hotness, but I'm definitely able to keep Michael's attention anytime I'm in a swimsuit; and I have developed quite a bit since last summer. So has Rowen, and while we got a fair bit of attention from other guys around our age; we were only interested in the attention we got from our boyfriends. Tim made some jokes about needing to stay close to us all of the time, but he and Michael were getting more than their share of attention from other girls there too. All of those months of weight training with the football team has really helped their hot factor when in swimsuits – a fact that Rowen and I appreciate a lot!

Since there was a lot of play time with the younger kids, our afternoon didn't get too hot; but doing everything with Michael did make everything more fun for both of us; and I'm sure that Rowen and Tim felt the same way. We had some work to do too, whether that was kid control or helping the parents and older teens with the work that goes along with the fun; but we still had lots of play time too. Michael and Rebecca went to help out at the Inn when we got back to town again; but only had to stay during the dinner rush. They missed out on the barbeque at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house, though that really just meant that they had different work to do than I did. We had fun at dinner too, but I was also run a bit ragged keeping up with the younger kids – particularly since I didn't have a lot of kid-control support while dinner was being put together for everyone.

There was more help after dinner for our play and swim time; and then I was seriously ready to just hang out and cuddle with Michael when it was time for our campfire. We still got recruited to help with the music, and did a pair of duets too; but we also pretty much let some of the other teens handle the campfire entertainment after the younger kids went to bed and the parents and grandparents all vacated the campfire then too. I really liked getting to chat with Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah until they were ready to call it a night; and ending the night with a fairly hot swim with Michael at his house was definitely a highlight of the day for us.

No, that wasn't too hot for being in public; but we were happy campers when we were ready to split up and head inside for the night. Dawn and Jillian had gone for a late night swim too, but they did that with some other teens at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house. That's why they were still awake and getting ready for bed when I got home. We were all tired out by then; but that didn't keep us from having an entertaining bedtime chat on my bed before they went to their rooms for the naps we had time for until morning. They had some interesting comments about some of the teen couples at the campfire, but the only thing I'll mention here is that Jillian is definitely more interested in Julian than Dawn is with Tommy. That isn't because Tommy is doing anything to annoy Dawn or anything – she's just finding out that they don't have very many common interests at all.

I guess that's enough of a recap for yesterday. The only email news I have tonight was from our traveling cousins; and they all got home safely – and are generally getting spoiled like crazy by their parents.

Isn't it funny how that's happening with the same parents who were probably doing happy dances at the start of their kid-free week? Maybe Ethan, Ehlana, and I should give Mom and Dad a kid-free week too sometime and see if that would be the same for us!

Taking a look ahead at next week, I didn't mention that Dad will be in the city. While I was busy at the Inn, he was finishing getting ready for his trip. He'll miss out on week two of the cousins' vacation; but I hope he'll have some fun here and there anyway – and he might be ready for the kid break anyway. Maybe we should talk Mom into going there to spend a night with him – without the kids or teens. Here at home, we don't actually have a lot of actual plans for the week. There might be thunderstorms tomorrow if the forecast is right; but the rest of the week is looking pretty good. We're going to do our Thursday night camping for sure; and Michael and I talked a bit about doing a big bike trip on Tuesday if the weather cooperates and we can get parent and teen approval to do that. The rest of the week we'll just be playing and having as much fun as we can.

Hopefully, that'll keep the fun level up for Dawn and Jillian even without Quarry Lake or trail ride adventures; but Mom really needs to do some more work at the lab this week too while she and Owen have the extra college teen help. I know, it's only the middle of July; but they only have about a month left before Andrew, Dillon, and Violet will be getting ready to head back to school again. I definitely don't want to think about that too much yet; so I won't.

I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep instead; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, July 14, 2014

We had some rain today, but it didn't start until around ten; and was over by the time we finished having lunch; so we mostly had another really good day – and really nice without the extreme heat.

Ethan, Ehlana, and I were up early with Mom to see Dad off on his trip; and then we had a nap before getting up and going outside for Tai Chi. Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace were kid-free again today, and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne were down to having just Jonathan and Christina at their house; so we were the only cousins' home-away-from-home where there weren't any changes for the second week of vacations. Without the younger kids around, Ethan and Ehlana didn't have as much to do, but that was okay with them; because Mom took them to the lab for most of the day while Dawn, Jillian, and I were set free to do whatever we wanted – except for showing up on time for lunch and dinner.

In the morning, Dawn and Jillian hung out with Rebecca, Michael, and me for a while at the Stone's house while I helped out with the usual yard work – until it started to rain harder at around eleven. Then we were set free and went to hang out at my house until lunchtime. Rowen and Tim joined us for that; and then Tommy and Julian showed up while we were still having lunch so that they could hang out with us for the afternoon too. With the rain out of the way for the day by then; biking and playing at the park was an option; so we did that for a few hours. We hit the trails and got a bit muddy thanks to some leftover puddles from the rain; went swimming twice; and split the rest of our time between goofing around with some friends and playing a bit of football that Rowen and I joined in for to give Tim enough players for a light scrimmage match.

We were all back at my house for dinner with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; while Violet was at Dillon's for the evening. That was when we also got our biking adventure plan for tomorrow approved by four out of six mothers; and Tommy and Julian had the okay to go along by the time Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I saw them again after the Michael and Tim were finished their ball practice. We spent a little time tonight getting some things ready for our trip; and then went for a swim before coming in for the night and watching a movie in the lounge. All four boys stayed for that; but went home pretty much right after the movie so that we could all get a good night's sleep so we'd be ready for our big ride.

I walked Michael home and we spent a little time saying goodnight out by the river behind his house; but then I came home again and had a little bedtime chat with Dawn and Jillian before they were ready to move on to their own rooms. I've had a bit of family business work to do; and some email to answer; but I'm ready to wrap this up and get some sleep now – and will still be sleeping by shortly after midnight. This hasn't been all that exciting of a day, but we've had fun; and I think we're going to have an awesome adventure tomorrow. I definitely want to be ready for that, so that's all the news for now. Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Congratulations, Angela, Terry, and Valerie – you're going to have a baby! Angela is due next March; and saved the news to tell Dad in person when they had dinner together tonight. They're very happy, and while I'm totally out of the loop on that so far; I'm excited and happy for them.

Next up, Grandma and Grandpa are on the way to Japan now; and that would have been my top family story of the day if it hadn't been for the news from Crystal Springs. They'll have a rest and sightseeing day; and then get to work – though they'll be alternating between work and play during their entire trip.

Here at home, I've had an absolutely amazing day; and everyone on our biking adventure would agree with that for sure. I'll skip the Tai Chi and breakfast news; and get right to that part of my story. 'We' included Dawn, Jillian, Rowen, and me – and Michael, Tim, Tommy, and Julian. Jonathan and Jenny were invited along, but she wasn't interested in shooting for a sixty or seventy mile round-trip ride; so they stayed home and did their own thing. Since Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Christine were all out of the house for the day; I probably don't want any details about what they were doing. Rebecca didn't want to go either; but that was more of a fifth-wheel thing than anything else – though she's not that big on long bike rides either.

Our goal today was to bike east along the Ridge River and attempt to reach the mouth of it at Rock Trout Lake. It probably seems shocking to some Magi reading this in the future that I've lived here for four years and still not gone there, or to the nearby town of Brookbridge; but I hadn't been there before today. It's just in one of those areas – kind of like Witch Falls is – where it just isn't on the beaten path. Brookbridge is closer to the highway going up to Crystal Springs than we are; but that route is out of the way for us compared to just taking Witch Falls road to the highway. Yeah, okay – anyone reading this and growing up here would know that; so I'll stop being obvious. Bottom line here is that nearly half of us hadn't been there before; and the others hadn't been there in at least several years – and more than that for most of them.

We left from my house by shortly before nine; and it's been a perfect day for that kind of ride – only into the high seventies or low eighties. While Dawn and Jillian in particular thought that covering thirty miles by lunchtime was going to be tough; we really didn't need to push ourselves all that hard – just keep a steady pace. There aren't really even a lot of stop signs between Witch Falls and Rock Trout Lake or Brookbridge – just a long, winding two-lane paved country road. There were quite a few stretches where there wasn't even much traffic.

Anyway, we biked straight out to the lake with only one little rest break; toured part of the lakeshore once we were there; and went for a swim at a little park where we were able to have our picnic lunch too. From there, we biked into Brookbridge; and Tim gave us the guided tour – along with some details that included talking a lot about the rivalry between our two football teams. We may have had their teams' number for the past few years with Kyle on our team; but that apparently isn't usually the case; and Tim is sure they're players and coaches are hoping to regain their supremacy again this season.

Let's not talk any more football tonight, though; and move along. Brookbridge is bigger than Witch Falls – more than double the size; and with a population of around two thousand. The types of stores are similar, but it didn't feel the same – mostly because Brookbridge isn't as old as Witch Falls; and most of the buildings are newer by comparison. We wandered around a few stores; had ice cream cones at their version of the Emporium; and then Tim took us on a tour that included biking around their high school before it was time to head for home again.

We stopped for another swim at that same park on the way home; but then rode the rest of the way home with just two more breaks that were mostly because Dawn and Jillian needed to take rests and they were both getting sore from so many hours on their bike seats. Including the extra biking around at the lake and Brookbridge, we hit a bit over seventy miles, so that isn't surprising; but I didn't have any problems – and neither did Rowen, Michael, or Tim. We were all glad to be home once we were there, and another swim was tops on our to-do list; but then we were put to work helping out with getting a barbeque dinner ready for everyone in our group; most of our cousins; and Michael's family.

That was all pot luck, including a lot of the grilled food options; and kept the fun going for another couple of hours while we worked, ate, and then played for a couple of hours until it was starting to get dark. Rowen's staying for a sleepover, and we'd decided to do that by dinnertime; but we also had all four boys stay to watch a movie with us in the lounge again. Tommy and Julian needed to be home at eleven, so Dawn and Jillian decided to take turns using my Jacuzzi instead of going for another swim with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me after the movie – which conveniently gave the four of us some quiet time together. It had cooled off again by then, but that just made the swim more refreshing – and the water felt warmer than usual by comparison. We followed up the swim with some chat time on the benches; and then Rowen decided to walk Tim home and leave Michael and I to do our goodnight hugs and kisses in relative privacy.

That wasn't the same as having some quality alone time in the lounge or anything; but it was a nice way to end a really great day. We stayed out until Rowen got back, and then Michael went home and Rowen and I came up to my room and got ready for bed. Dawn and Jillian were already sleeping by then, and since Jillian was in the Jacuzzi first; I'll guess that was because she'd fallen asleep by the time that Dawn was finished taking her turn in the tub. They were both exhausted after the ride, though; so Rowen and I hadn't expected them to want to party all night.

We don't want to do that either, but I did some work on my computer and Rowen surfed YouTube for the strange and amusing to keep us entertained while I worked. I've finished my nightly computer checks too; so we're pretty much ready to call it a night. Michael, Rowen, and Tim are all back to work tomorrow, so Dawn, Jillian, and I will probably spend more time with Ethan and Ehlana while they're busy. The only thing we actually have on the agenda for tomorrow is Mom's co-ed baseball practice; so it should be another quiet day. We'll be glad to have that to rest up and be ready for another Thursday night camping adventure; but I'm sure that we'll have fun too – since every day of Dawn and Jillian's holiday here has been fun so far.

That is it for tonight, though, and I'm ready for some quality nap time; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

It's been a fun day, but I really don't have much to write about tonight. After Tai Chi and breakfast, I did some work around the house while Dawn and Jillian entertained Ethan and Ehlana. We then took them to the park for some play time until noon; had lunch with Mom, Violet, and Alicia; and then spent the afternoon playing too – biking, swimming, and pretty much just goofing around while Mom was busy at the lab. Michael joined us to play too during his afternoon break, but then he stayed there until close; and didn't come over again after that. He was just ready to call it a night and get some rest so that we'll be able to stay up late tomorrow night.

We had an easy dinner; Dawn, Jillian, and I took care of a handful of kids during Mom's baseball practice; and then we took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana off to bed while Mom went to work in the office to catch up on family business work. Dawn and Jillian are watching a movie in the lounge now; but I decided to get my nightly computing out of the way and plan on going to sleep right after I'm done with this update.

Oh look – I'm done! ;^)

Have a good night – or day or whatever; and, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

I'll start this update with the news that our camping adventure is parent-supervision-free because some of us successfully convinced Mom to go to Crystal Springs for the night so that she could both spend some alone time with Dad and visit with the Malloys. We do have college teen support, though; so it has not been party night at the Proctors – and we kept the camping invitations comparatively low.

Mom did work at the lab this morning and have lunch with us; but then she packed a bag and hit the road while leaving Violet and Alicia in charge of us until they had some parental support at dinnertime. That wasn't particularly tough for them because we – the kids and teens – spent most of the afternoon at the park, canoeing, or swimming; and we were only home in time to set up tents before dinner. Aunt Leanne and Aunt Deborah led the dinner cooking crew; but there were donations and help from other parents and teens – and it wasn't too much work to throw together salads, snack foods, hot dogs, and burgers.

We ate early enough that Rowen and I could get to our ball practice, and while we were busy with that; Tim and Lucas led the football scrimmage that was even getting the attention of a few of the school team players this week. I'll have other football news in a bit, but let's talk baseball first. It seems a bit strange to have no games while my cousins are here, but our next game isn't until a week from Saturday. We have two wins and one loss so far; so this next game is fairly important – and could mean the difference between being in a good place for earning a spot in the championship game or in trouble if we lose. Our practice went fairly well; and it was particularly nice to be doing that when it wasn't over a hundred degrees. We still have another practice before the game; so I hope we'll be ready. I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things; but try to remember that I do like to win – even when I'm playing a game when I have to play 'normal teen' too.

I wonder if the council would ever let us have a Magi baseball game a la the Twilight movie. That would be so cool – and probably not ever going to happen.

While Rowen, Rebecca, Jenny, and I were busy with baseball and the boys were playing football; Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah took care of the younger kids with some help from Dawn and Jillian. We all went swimming after that back at my house; and Michael was with us by then after catching the last half of the football action once he was finished helping out at the Inn. We picked up the Bassett cousins on the way home from the park; so we had everyone staying for the camping by then too. After cooling off with a swim, we had a snack break; and then played for a while until starting our campfire. Michael and I led the music for that, though Jake took a turn playing guitar after he and Stephanie joined the fun after closing the Inn for the night; and the older teens took care of most of the scary stories for us.

The younger kids were moved into their tents at eleven with help from our chaperones; and then Michael and I stayed nearby while most of the others stayed around the fire until Dillon put it out at midnight – as per parental orders that had been a condition of Mom's agreeing to go away for the night. It was cooling down pretty good by then, but we went for a swim anyway; and then Michael and I had Rebecca, Lucas, Tim, and Rowen with us for some cuddle and chat time while Dawn, Jillian, Tommy, and Julian went for a walk and Emma and Kylie opted to hang out in their tent. That's where the football story comes into the picture again.

The guys recapped their scrimmage game, but the real news for them came from them talking about football training plans for the rest of the summer. Tim wants to start daily training on Monday. Apparently, only having five weeks left to go before football training camp opens during the last week of August is barely enough time to get ready – despite the fact that Tim's been getting ready for this for months; and really years now. They're still working out the details, but a Monday or Tuesday morning workout at the Norton farm is a possibility; and Lucas is going to see about getting out of Friday morning chores so that he can do a workout with Michael and Tim then too – at least whenever he's here for our Thursday night camping. With crops needing to be harvested, he may not be able to do either workouts every week; but his Dad is a former high school football alumni; so he might get some support – and even some training help.

I won't try to suggest that Rebecca, Rowen, or I were all that interested in talking sports, but cuddling with our respective boyfriends was nice enough until everyone was back 'home' and we were all ready to turn in for the night. Violet and Dillon have Christina and Josiah staying here, but they aren't camping. Maybe it's a college thing that has them losing interest in back yard camping. If dorm room beds are that bad, though, when it's my turn to go away to school; I'm going to have a better plan – like getting my own place. Then I'll have to convince my boyfriend and best friends to come along; and convince the parents that we should be allowed to do that at seventeen and eighteen.

Piece of cake, right? ;^)

That's still four years off, though; so let's not start on that plan quite yet. As for the news today, that's pretty much all I have to report. Tomorrow is going to be a work morning because I want to get my chores done before Mom gets home so that I'll be free for the entire weekend to play with Dawn and Jillian before they go home. Rowen's going to work at the store then too so that she can do the same thing, and while Michael and Tim will both be doing some work; they'll be going to Quarry Lake with us for the afternoon – and the picnic lunch. We're not planning on another camping night to end Dawn and Jillian's vacation here; but we might do a girls' night sleepover and have Emma and Kylie join us for the night. I'll keep you posted on that.

Rowen and I have been doing our usual bedtime camp chat, her surfing YouTube videos, and my bedtime computing; but she's already put her computer away and I should do that now too. Even with the work, we're going to have a great last couple of days of fun before Dawn and Jillian head home on Sunday; and I'm really looking forward to that – and then to maybe taking a couple of days to catch our breath after weeks of what feels like nearly non-stop action.

Don't laugh – it might happen!

Whatever happens there, though, that's all for tonight; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Being parent-free last night had been more exciting for a few of us than it was for most; but we all noticed the difference this morning when breakfast was self-serve and not nearly as good as a breakfast buffet at the Inn!

Michael and I had fun leading Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden through our Tai Chi workout, but then it was all work and no play for me for the rest of the morning while helping to get kids fed and ready for the day; packing up the campground; and then getting to work on my normal weekend chores. Dawn and Jillian helped me with that, so we were finished by one o'clock. We had lunch with Mom because she was home by then and had already dropped off Aunt Leanne's fast food fix at the office first. We traded stories while having subs and salads; and then Dawn, Jillian, and I met up with Rowen, Tim, Michael, and the rest of our usual gang over the past two weeks to go biking and swimming at the park.

While we were doing that, Mom was at the lab with Ethan and Ehlana; but Dawn, Jillian, and I met up with her at home in time to help out with our contribution to the barbeque dinner that Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace hosted. We had the usual Friday night gang with a few friend additions, and had fun; but the fun really got started when Dad got home from Crystal Springs – and had Uncle Rick, Aunt Melissa, and Jillian's parents all traveling in a mini-convoy with him. The four weekend guests had reservations at the Inn, so they only stopped in for a few minutes before going over there to get checked in before Miranda and Jacob closed the Inn for the night; but then they came back again to join the party for another couple of hours.

I'm sure that their parents already knew about Dawn and Jillian hanging around with Tommy and Julian; but seeing the four tweens together had quite the impact on the Dads – and made Tommy and Julian fairly uncomfortable too. Considering how things are working out for Violet and Dillon, I guess that Uncle Rick has reason to be nervous; but then he really doesn't need to be.

Jillian's father, on the other hand, might have something to worry about. ;^)

Okay, maybe not anytime soon; but Jillian does love Witch Falls – more than Dawn does. I could totally see her fitting right in if she moved here. After spending a weekend at the Inn; her parents might even learn to love it here too; though they probably won't be giving up their jobs and moving here anytime soon. We did have fun tonight, though; and Michael joined us for some of that entertainment and family time after finishing up at the Inn. I should have mentioned that he was working tonight so that he could have the extra time off for our Quarry Lake adventure tomorrow; but he'll help out there around the play time too.

That's why we didn't hang out together for too long before I walked him home and we did our goodnight hugs and kisses by the river – he's going to be back at the Inn for the breakfast rush. Dawn and Jillian walked Tommy and Julian home while I was doing that – after saying goodnight to their parents and sending them back to the Inn. They would have been welcome to stay with us; but they're making this a weekend getaway that just happens to include some kid time. Chris and Martin aren't here to join in for that; but Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa are almost sure that they'll still have a house to come back to when they get home again.

Hopefully they won't be wishing that Mom had given Chris and Martin another board-breaking lesson before leaving them on their own. I'm sure that Dawn will give me all of the details if they do mess up – both literally and figuratively.

Moving along, we were all home and getting ready for bed comparatively early; and I'm even going to manage to be sleeping before midnight. Since tomorrow is Dawn and Jillian's last full day here, though; I'm going to be glad for the extra rest. In addition to the Quarry Lake trip, we have another family barbeque dinner and campfire planned; and a girls' night sleepover at my house is looking highly likely too; so we are going to have a late night tomorrow for sure.

That's okay – I can rest up next week! Maybe – if we aren't too busy to do that.

That is all I have for today, though; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Our Quarry Lake trip last weekend was awesome; but I'll have to rank our adventure there today – and all of the rest of the fun we've had – higher on the best-ever family play days so far list. The weather was perfect; there was no major teen or tween drama; and everything from morning Tai Chi to our girls' night sleepover has been a blast – even when we were doing some work here and there or helping out with kid control.

There's a lot to report, and I won't cover everything; but let's start with a special mention for Jillian's parents. Jim and Lily Wright are two of Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa's best friends for a reason; and they fit right in with the adults in our family – and the handful of friends they all spent time with both at Quarry Lake and at home during dinner and the campfire. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them today, but we did have fun with them when we were all playing or swimming together. I'm really glad that they decided to come and spend the weekend with us – and I know that Jillian is too.

Before I get to the rest of the report, there is one news item that needs to be included – though this probably wasn't news to everyone today since it must have taken a bit of planning and negotiation. Jonathan is not heading home tomorrow as planned. He's staying for another week; and then getting a ride home with Christina and Josiah. Getting to spend the extra week with Jenny is only part of that story because the second half of that news flash is that she's going to be going to spend the week after that with Jonathan, Christina, and their family while Christina and Josiah are taking a week off to visit the McEwans and have a little break before wrapping up their summer holidays back here and then going on to college again.

I wonder if Jonathan will find an excuse to come back again and spend another month or so with us until Labor Day?

In other teen news, Rebecca and Michael worked the breakfast shift at the Inn this morning, and were both given the rest of the day off to play with us. That worked out especially well for Rebecca because Lucas just happened to get the afternoon off too so that he could come out to Quarry Lake with the rest of his family – though his father stayed and worked the farm until mid-afternoon before joining us there. The Nortons also stayed for the dinner and campfire at our house; and Emma and Kylie are spending the night here with Dawn and Jillian.

By the way, the boys are not having a sleepover tonight too. For some, like Lucas, that's because he has morning chores to help his father with before church tomorrow; but the rest of the guys may just be getting too cool and mature for sleepovers. Tim and Michael certainly don't do them nearly as often as Rowen and I do. Speaking of not as often – Rowen and I also have Rebecca and Jenny here with us tonight. I seriously doubt that Jenny would have joined us if Jonathan had been going home tomorrow, but since he isn't; she didn't even need to spend two or three hours saying goodnight to him after the campfire.

This update is jumping around all over the place, so let's back up and at least attempt a little order to the rest of the report.

Tai Chi without Michael was a bit less fun this morning, and even breakfast was a bit quiet because Dawn, Jillian, and Violet went to the Inn for a special breakfast with their parents. Yes, we were invited; but Mom and Dad thought that it would be nice for them to have some time without a big gang after being apart for nearly two weeks. I didn't really mind that at all – it gave us a little break in the action too before we started getting ready for our Quarry Lake trip. We had help for that as the morning went along, ranging from kid support from Alicia to food donations dropped off by parents – usually while kids or teens were being delivered for the day too. By eleven o'clock, we had all of the kids, teens, and adults at our house; the truck and minivan were loaded up; and we had bonus drivers and vehicles to help with the transportation out to the campground.

The teen and adult boys in our group would probably tell you that their favorite part of the day was girlfriends or wives in swimsuits time. For me, it was all of the play time with my friends and family. Whether Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were playing with the twins and their friends at the playground; hanging out with the other teens; having fun with our favorite adults; or spending time in the lake staying cool, there wasn't any part of today that I didn't think was awesome. Even the after-lunch football scrimmage was a blast – particularly since our teen team won the game against the parents and college teens.

We did have all of our favorite college teens at the campground with us for at least part of the afternoon; though Jake and Stephanie worked the lunch and dinner shifts at the Inn and only came out to play with us for about three hours while taking an extended break from the action there. Again, I didn't get to spend all that much time with them – or Violet and Dillon; but that's just the way these big family events seem to always go. I always wish there was more time to spend with everyone, but trust me – I'm way happier to have that problem than I would be going back to the way it was with just Mom and me before we moved here!

I'm sure that Mom would agree – even on a night when she and Dad might both be wishing for a few less kids in the house. It really wasn't fair of us to have Dad spend the day admiring Mom in a two-piece after spending most of a week apart and then leave them with nowhere to go with that while having a house full of girls – plus Ethan and Aiden.

That said – don't feel too sorry for them. They may not have been able to get wild and crazy; but I'm positive that they didn't just crawl into bed and go straight off to sleep. The toddlers in the house were sleeping by then, and the rest of us girls were in my room or the lounge making a fair bit of noise for the first hour and a half or so after the campfire ended; so they did have some opportunity to play.

I'll leave that thought there, and as usual; if you're using your imagination on that with my parents while reading this in the future; please don't ever tell me!

That's totally gotten me off-track again, though; so let's get back to the main story. We got to the campground in time to set up our little day camp site and then go for a long swim before having our picnic lunch. Michael and I were on kid control for both that first swim and helping to get them fed; but then we were free after that – starting with the football scrimmage. As mentioned, we won that game, but to be fair; the adult guys seemed to have more trouble concentrating on the game than the teen boys did. It was probably the wives and girlfriends in swimsuits that was the main problem there; but the only members of our group who seemed to have a problem with that was the kids or teens who were occasionally grossed out. I wasn't one of those teens or kids; but maybe my perspective is just too different. Maybe I should do a survey and find out if that's exclusively because of being a single-parent kid for the first nine years of my life. This could just be how every adopted kid feels about their new parent – if they're as happy as we are.

My thoughts really are just randomly jumping around tonight. Let's try to keep it together for the rest of the update! We followed the football up with another swim; some kid-rated playground action; and two more swims with some Frisbee teen time in between before it was time to pack up and head for home. Some parents, including Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, headed home early to get started on the barbeque dinner, so by the time we got home; that work was in full swing.

This time, Michael and I were put to work with the crew that set up the tables and chairs while Dawn, Jillian, Tommy, and Julian were among the tweens tasked with watching the younger kids while everyone else pitched in to get the pre-dinner work done. We had quite a few adult friends over for dinner too – including a handful that joined the party after closing stores for the night. Michael and I were on meal-time kid control again, but had Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Jonathan with us to help with that – along with most of the younger teens and tweens – and the older kids like Jessica, Lindsay, Patrick, and Scott.

There were lots of food options, including everything from hot dogs and hamburgers to steak, chicken, and shish kabobs off of the grill; so most of us ate too much; and then got to spend the next hour cleaning up the kitchen and yard before getting back to a little more play and swim time until we gathered together again for the campfire. While that wasn't the end of the night for some of us, it was a great way to wind down an amazing day. The highlights for me included two more duets with Michael that Aunt Leanne requested with other parental votes of approval; the spooky stories; and the cuddle time with Michael while we sat with Rowen, Tim, and most of the other teens.

One little change for campfire time tonight was a comparatively early end to it. There wasn't a kid under ten with us by eleven; and the fire was put out shortly before twelve despite a few disappointed teens. There were still quite a few people around us when Michael went home, so our good night kiss wasn't exactly a remember-forever moment; but maybe we'll get a chance to make up for that tomorrow night – if we're able to stay awake after helping out with the buffets at the Inn.

I'd better not think about that too much tonight either; so let's wrap this up. We – the girls – were changed, ready for bed, and gathered in my room and the lounge by twelve-thirty. Jenny picked out a movie that not all of us really wanted to stay up for an hour and a half or so to watch; but we did stay up and have a fun little girl chat even if we didn't watch the show. Jenny and Rebecca are still in the lounge and camping out there tonight; but the rest of the girls are sleeping – including Rowen and Mandy. They're in bed with me, but Rowen didn't even last through two YouTube videos before dozing off while I've been doing my usual bedtime computing and a bit of family business work. That's taken a little while since I couldn't do it with any Magi-powered assistance; so I'm only going to end up having a nap before needing to get up and started on another crazy-busy day.

That's going to include a big family breakfast here; a goodbye luncheon for Dawn and Jillian after church; and then a busy buffet shift at the Inn after I help Dawn and Jillian get ready to leave with their parents tomorrow afternoon. There was some talk tonight about staying for the early buffet; but they decided against doing that and then still having the long drive home. I'd pick the drive over spending hours in a hot kitchen, but then again; I'd only pick that option if Michael was coming too. I am way overdue for a visit to Woodvale, though; so maybe Michael and I should work on doing a visit there later this summer.

I just have no idea when we'd be able to fit that in!

It won't be tonight for sure, and I really do need to get started on that nap time now; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

This update is only coming to you late because I fell asleep at Michael's house tonight and got the wake-up call to go home when Jake got back from Stephanie's house and he found Michael and me napping on the sofa in the living room. I'm home and in bed with Mandy now, but I'm ready to go back to sleep; so this is going to be a micro update.

Tai Chi, breakfast, and getting ready for church was a real blast of fun and action with so many girls sharing bathroom time. Mom even used her bathroom to help with that – and getting the younger girls ready to go for the day. We made it to church on time; had our family lunch; and then I helped Dawn and Jillian get packed and ready to head home again. Michael came over for his afternoon break, and was there in time to see them off; we went for a swim with Ethan and Ehlana after they left; and then I went along when it was time for him to get back to the Inn. We stayed and helped until closing; I went home with him; and I've already mentioned the falling asleep on the sofa thing.

Another alone time opportunity missed!

Oh well. I'm too tired to be upset about that right now; but I will try to make it up to him sometime this week – or he can make it up to me; since I can't be positive which one of us actually fell asleep first.

The only other nightly computing I did tonight was to check and make sure that Dawn, Jillian, and their parents got home safely. They did; I don't have anything else that seems important enough to add to this report; and I really am just ready to crash again, so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, July 21, 2014

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah!

They've had a good day, and are getting a kid-free night with Leah at Grandma and Grandpa Ayres' house. I'll cover the anniversary dinner when I get to that part of the update for today; but will leave their overnight entertainment to your imagination – should you choose to go there. I definitely don't plan on doing that!

It's been a beautiful, hot day; and though we started out with Tai Chi and breakfast; the main news of the morning was the start of football training for Michael and Tim. Why is that news for me? Because Rowen and I did a lot of the training with them. Not everything, since we weren't particularly interested in doing push-ups, sit-ups, or the rest of that part of their work-out; but we did help with some of the drills and practice.

Just in case Tim eventually has a different version of the story; I'll mention here that he did not win any of the suicide drills that Rowen and I ran with him and Michael – unless you consider getting to watch your girlfriend running in front of you a 'win'. To be fair, the drills were set up that way on purpose, and Rowen and I were spotted ten yards; but the boys definitely did not catch up to us before we crossed the finish line. Before any guys reading this start thinking that Michael and Tim must not be very good, try to keep in mind that Rowen and I are pretty fair athletes; and the goal was to give them a real challenge – while making suicide drills just a bit more fun for them. They have a few inches of height on us now too, but that's offset easily enough with better technique at the turns. I do expect the guys to start winning eventually; but that definitely didn't happen today.

While those drills and a couple of others were fun, my favorite part of the practice was quarterbacking their route running practice. I may not be able to throw a rocket sixty yards down the field, but I did inherit some math skills; so I can toss a football to the exact spot it's meant to go for any route – and I have all of the passing plays memorized from the games I watched last season. Tim wants to work on new plays too eventually, but we didn't do that today. Rowen helped out with the route-running practice by doing a few different things – including being our running back for some plays and playing defense or blocker for others as Michael and Tim took turns running routes or trying to defend them.

You're probably wondering by now why I'm even writing this much about football, considering how little interest I personally have in the sport. I'd be happy doing anything else with Michael, Tim, and Rowen too, but the boys really want to play football; and I'd rather help them with that than not spend that time together – especially when it's going to be a lot of time if they make the school team this season. We had fun with it today too, and like the sport or not; I can actually help the boys to get ready for training camp and have a real shot at making the team.

That said, I don't have anything else football-related for today – other than to mention that tomorrow's practice is going to be at the Norton farm. We didn't do that today because Michael had his chores to do too; and we are going to need to bike out there and back for those practices so Tuesday works better. Today, I helped Michael with those chores; but we went for a cool-down swim with Rowen and Tim first before doing that. After Rowen and Tim moved on, Michael and I helped with getting the lawn and garden work done. We went for another pair of swims with Rebecca, Jake, and Stephanie when we needed to cool off; and had the work done by one-thirty when we stopped for a late, snack-lunch.

Once we had the work out of the way, Michael and I met up with Rowen and Tim again; took Ethan and Ehlana along with us; and spent a couple of hours playing at the park. We rode bikes; swam; and ran around at the playground – most of that with quite a few kids and teens since the park was a very popular place to be this afternoon. I don't even think about it sometimes, but the park is the best place for most kids and teens in town to go swimming. I'm okay with a little break right now; but maybe I'll see about setting up a few swim and play afternoons at my house for some of our friends who don't have back-yard access to the river – or doing things like canoe trips. Another big group bike ride would be cool too – Maybe we could shoot for Maple Valley this time!

Getting back to today; I needed to be home in time to help out with Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah's dinner party; so Michael and I took Ethan and Ehlana home by a bit after four o'clock and got to work again. The dinner wasn't until six; but we helped with everything from cutting up veggies and cooking to setting up tables and chairs in Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's back yard. After a couple of weeks filled with lots of family barbeques and adventures, this actually seemed to be a bit low-key by comparison; but we had fun for the forty-five minutes or so that Michael and I were there for before he needed to get to his practice.

The younger kids were finished eating by then, so we took them along; and I had Rowen to help me out while Michael and Tim practiced and we kept the kids busy at the playground. Since I'm thinking about them; this seems like a good time for a Leah and Zack update.

Leah is fourteen and a half months old now; and is at a very entertaining age now that she's mobile and toddling around. She wants to do everything that the older kids want to do; and loves to run around and chase Ethan and Ehlana. Zack isn't running around anywhere yet, but he's at a fun stage too – crawling and sitting and playing with his toys; and wishing that he didn't have to play 'normal' baby out in public while the rest of his cousins are having all of the fun. He's developing a sense of humor that's a bit scary; and reminds me a bit too much of Chris and Martin. When the lab opens in September, maybe they should make job number one discovering a way to weed that particular gene out of the family pool.

It's just a thought – I know that Uncle Adam and Ehlana have other things they want to do first. Curing diseases and developing drought-resistant crops are at the top of their list; but the women of the world would appreciate a little less Neanderthal in some of the men a lot too – and that would help to make the world a happier place for all of us!

I'm off-track again, so let's get back to the news. Leah and Zack do have a couple of features that mark them as Johnson family cousins, though what most people probably think is the most-obvious similarity – their blonde hair – actually didn't come to either of them through the Uncle Adam or Aunt Deborah at all. Leah's hair and eyes are definitely from her Grandma Lydia; while Zack got a lot of his looks from his mother – though his blue eyes are much deeper blue – like his father's. They're both adorable, and while I wish that I could spend more time with them; I guess that we do get to do more together than most cousins do – and we'll be able to play with them more often once they're both a little older.

We had fun hanging out together tonight, and after the ball practice; we all went for a swim back at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house before Grandma and Grandpa Ayres took Leah home with them and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I went home with my family. Mom and Dad had some work to do in the office then, so we took Ethan and Ehlana upstairs with us to the lounge. Michael and I got them changed and ready for bed on our way there; but then they stayed up and watched a movie with us before going to bed for the night. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I went for a bedtime swim after that; and then I walked Michael home to say goodnight to him with a bit of privacy after Rowen and Tim left for her house. We didn't spend a lot of time doing that because we're all going to be up early for the bike ride out to the Nortons; and that's why I'm going to be sleeping before midnight again – though that is going to happen in my own bed tonight instead of while cuddling with Michael on the sofa in their living room.

Maybe I should have picked the cuddle time with Michael instead! ;^)

Before I wrap this up, though, that does bring up a couple of things that I should include in this update. The first is that Michael and I did not get into any trouble for my late night at his house. We did get teased about it – particularly from Aunt Leanne before and during dinner; but that was mostly just entertaining. The other thing doesn't have anything to do with Michael and me directly; but it is teen news. Word at the park is that Denise Burroughs and Luke Taylor are a couple; and they've been hanging out together a lot on their farms. Luke is in Rebecca's class, and nearly a year and a half older than Denise; and rumor has it that Denise has been waiting to 'catch up' to Luke. Now that we're down to weeks away from being in high school too; I guess that works for them now. That's really only news because it'll add one more couple to the couples club in our class and reduces the singles by one. There are a couple of other reasons I'm mentioning it here too; but let's leave them for future updates.

I really should get off to sleep now, and that's all I have for tonight; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

I have a lot of news to cover for today, but will need to go out of order because the top story is about Rowen; and happened this afternoon.

We were biking the trails in the park this afternoon – Rowen, Tim, Michael, and me – and Rowen went off-trail and wiped out instead of running into a younger kid who had been trying to go the wrong way down the same trail and had gotten stuck. She didn't see him until the last second, and when she went off-trail; her front wheel dug in and she went over the handlebars.

Why is that the top story of the day? Because a few of us know that she actually got hurt a bit worse than the 'official' story. I knew as soon as I reached her that she'd broken her left wrist along with getting some cuts and bruises from the fall. The good news is that nobody else knew that – though Tim told us that he was sure it must be broken based on his expert assessment of her crash. Rowen was pretty sure that she'd broken it; but didn't get that confirmed until we stopped in at her house so that she could get cleaned up and changed while we sent the boys on ahead to let Aunt Deborah know that we were on the way.

If either of the boys didn't totally buy the excuse of Rowen wanting to get cleaned up and changed before going to see whichever doctor she ended up with, they didn't say anything; and that worked out for the best because Rowen ended up getting Uncle Mark because Uncle Adam was at the lab working with Dillon this afternoon. Okay, so I knew where Uncle Adam was, and suggested stopping at Rowen's house so that I could heal her broken wrist and save her spending the summer in a cast; but I wouldn't have let that happen anyway – even if I'd needed to recruit Aunt Deborah to help me.

It was much easier to do it this way; though I didn't completely heal Rowen right then. Her wrist was sprained too, and while I'll heal her the rest of the way over the next week or two, and make sure that it doesn't really bother her at all; Michael and Tim wouldn't have believed that she wasn't hurt at all after seeing her in real pain and being very careful not to move her wrist as we biked back from the park and then on to the clinic. If Mom hadn't been at the lab too, we'd have stopped in there instead, but I honestly wasn't worried about being able to handle a couple of fractures; and Rowen thought that it was a cool as I did.

Uncle Mark took Rowen in right away; cleaned and bandaged a couple of the bigger cuts; and had her wrist x-rayed to make sure that it wasn't broken before wrapping it in a tensor bandage and sending us off with a prescription for ice cream cones and some quiet time for the rest of the day. Patricia and Owen had been called, but didn't come to the clinic when Aunt Deborah assured them that the x-ray was just a precaution and that Rowen had likely only sprained her wrist; so we checked in with them first on the way to the Emporium for the ice cream. We went to my house after that; and spent the rest of the afternoon mostly floating around in the river because it was another scorcher with the humidex hitting one-seventeen or eighteen.

With that news covered, though; let's back up and start with the other top news of the day – our first football workout at the Norton's farm. Technically, the 'our' part of that isn't accurate; but Rebecca, Rowen, Emma, and I all joined in for some parts of the practice; and the bike ride each way was a workout too – especially when the return trip has that climb back up the ridge near the end of the ride. I wasn't totally surprised that Rebecca decided to go along with us, but considering her usual lack of biking enthusiasm; she must have really wanted to spend the extra time with Lucas to put those miles on her lightly-used mountain bike.

The Norton farm is a few miles south of town, and I thought that it was a nice ride out into the valley – especially early in the morning. Lucas had already finished his morning chores by the time we got there; so the boys got right into their warm-up and workout while Rebecca, Rowen, and I had drinks and a chat with Claire and Emma. Rebecca wasn't as interested in doing the same drills that Rowen and I had done yesterday with the boys, but she gave it a try; and had more fun with Lucas while doing that than Rowen and I had with Tim and Michael respectively. Their results weren't as impressive, since they came in fifth and sixth every time; but they didn't seem to have a problem with that.

Ben wasn't really able to play along with us, but he and Emma both joined in when Michael, Lucas, and Tim were ready to run routes and practice both running and throwing plays with me as quarterback again. Lucas want to be a running back on the team – even though he knows that means competing against Caleb Palmer, but he doesn't really have the size to be on the offensive or defensive lines and readily admits that he doesn't have the hand skills to be a decent receiver. He proved that last point to me today the few times I tried throwing the ball his way; though he isn't actually terrible at it. Rebecca, Rowen, Emma, and Ben mostly played defense against us; though that wasn't really challenging enough for Michael, Tim, or Lucas most of the time – even if Lucas and Tim did have some fun with Rebecca and Rowen while we played.

The work on the farm didn't stop for us, and Lucas needed to get back to helping his father; so we stuck to our approved time limit with ten minutes to spare so that Rebecca and Lucas could say a proper goodbye to each other before he needed to get back to work and we needed to start our ride back to town. We went for a long swim after getting back; had a self-serve lunch at Michael's house; and then Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I went biking at the park. We hadn't been there all that long when Rowen had her little accident; so I've already covered that part of the report, and after our swim and relax part of the afternoon; Tim took Rowen home for dinner and a quiet evening with him while Michael and I had dinner at his house before we needed to get to the church for our teen praise team practice.

While the first Sunday in August isn't as big of a deal for the teens, the teen praise team still does the music for that service; so we're doing two practices to get ready for it – the one we just had; and the one we'll have next week. Since it's mostly a normal service; we only have one piece of special music to get ready along with the usual worship songs. Michael and I will do a couple of practices on our own too between now and then; but we both have the songs memorized already anyway. It was really hot in the church sanctuary, so Michael and I went for a swim after we got back to his house; and then spent some time with his parents in the living room while Rebecca was hanging out with Jenny, Jonathan, and some of their friends.

It seems funny to think about Jenny and Jonathan right now as I write this because I haven't really seen much of them at all since Sunday. They're mostly doing their own thing, and whatever that is – it doesn't require hanging out with us. I will leave that thought there, if only because Michael and I got some alone time tonight after his parents went to bed and while Rebecca, Jake, and Stephanie were all out; and we certainly weren't interested in hanging out with anyone else while we were playing! ;^)

That's the main reason why I didn't get home until long after Ethan and Ehlana went to bed, and Mom and Dad were on their way up to bed by then too; so we just did a quick recap that included the detailed news about Rowen that I hadn't been able to pass on before then. Mom was not upset about me doing that for Rowen; but the news will be passed on to the council and Grandma Emerson. I don't expect that to be a problem either; though this is the first Magi Healing I've done without prior adult approval.

Okay, no, I didn't have approval for Gawain's healing either; but that was a completely different situation.

Moving along, I had a bedtime text-chat with Rowen while doing my bedtime computing; and she had a good night too – though she and Tim didn't exactly follow doctor's orders. Then again, I seriously doubt that any doctor is going to order two teens to make out all night to help one of them feel better. That doesn't mean the therapy isn't valid – just parentally controversial.

I'd better not go there either right now or I'll be tempted to sneak back over to Michael's house – and we might have a tough time explaining that to the parental units in the morning. Instead of doing that, I'm going to wrap this up and get some sleep. It's a work day tomorrow, so I'll be doing that for part of the day; and then I want to spend some time with Ethan and Ehlana. Mom and Dad haven't decided whether they want to go out after baseball practice tomorrow; but I may be babysitting tomorrow night too. Since that could mean a late night, and we'll definitely have a late night with our Thursday night camping; so I'll take the extra down time now while I can get it.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

It's been a fairly quiet day around here, and while I've had fun; there isn't much to report.

I started out the day with Tai Chi, breakfast, and football 'practice'; and then worked on the family business until lunchtime. Lunch was with Mom, Alicia, and the twins; I spent the afternoon playing with Ethan and Ehlana; and then we had dinner with Mom and Dad while Violet was at Dillon's. Our afternoon play time included some fun with Michael while he was on his afternoon break; but he didn't come over tonight; and we had a quiet evening at home except for Mom and Dad's baseball practice at the park. Mom did a Magi lesson with Ethan, Ehlana, and me between dinner and baseball; and I helped her with getting the twins bathed and into bed after we played at the park before she went to work in the office with Dad and I came up to my room for some Jacuzzi time.

Mom and Dad skipped the pub play option after baseball; though Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne did go out – and had Jenny and Jonathan as their babysitters tonight. I hope Zack took it easy on them!

That's really pretty much all I have for this update, and since I have another chance to catch up on some sleep; I'm going to take advantage of it and not stay up half the night working on my computer. I'll be at full power for our Thursday night camping adventure; so I hope my friends are getting some sleep tonight too.

Oh, I guess I should do a Rowen update. She's enjoying some extra attentiveness from Tim; took a pass on the football workout this morning; and mostly played while working at the store and tech center today before having a quiet evening with Tim again tonight. I had a little chance to help her healing along this morning before we met up with the boys for football; and Mom checked my Magi handiwork out too while I did that. We may give Ethan and Ehlana a chance to help out over the next couple of days with that if we can swing it. I'll keep you posted.

Okay, that's definitely it for now; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Happy 7th Birthday, Ryan!

I need to begin this update with the admission that Ryan Bassett's big day wasn't something I was really thinking about at all before this morning – at least from the perspective of it affecting what I was going to be doing today and tonight. To be fair, Michael didn't know that his plans were going to change either, but he is a softie; and that's one of the reasons why I love him. When Ryan wanted him to stay for his birthday camping night; Michael couldn't say no. That's why Tim is hanging out at the Bassett's house tonight too, and while that's meant that we didn't have our boys with us tonight; we still managed to have a fair bit of fun with them anyway.

I'll get to that part of the story in a bit and back up to the beginning.

The weather has been awesome this week, and the last couple of days have been an especially nice combination of hot and sunny without climbing into the realms of scorching hot. That's worked out great for Tai Chi; we had breakfast on the back porch this morning; and football workouts are much nicer when there aren't three numbers to the left of the decimal on the thermometer. Rowen came over to our house before we met up with Michael and Tim at the park, so we were able to let Ethan and Ehlana have some Magi healing play time with her that included working on the sprained wrist and speeding up the cuts and bruises healing too.

Rowen wants to trade them for Patrick; but Mom, Dad, and I really want to keep Ethan and Ehlana so she'll just have to keep looking for someone who will make that trade with her. Maybe she should ask Jessica and Sophia if they'd trade Patrick for Ryan. They were certainly happy to escape their house and come camping with us – though that probably had more to do with the fact that Ryan had all of the other boys in his class and a couple of other friends all there with him. That kind of gang of six-to-eight-year old boys can scare any girl – including the Moms!

By the time we went to the park for football training, Michael knew that he'd been drafted to help out with Ryan's party, and while that got him out of the dinner shift at the Inn; keeping up with Ryan and his buddies was the tougher job for sure. Our football fun is attracting some attention and early morning spectators now; and Tim's hoping that some other guys will join in soon – though Kyle's doing workouts with some of the senior football players too while getting ready for his college training camp. Tim hasn't really said exactly why he isn't doing that too; but it probably has more to do with when Kyle is doing his workouts around his summer job work with his father and uncle at the shop.

Or maybe he just can't keep up when Lee and Kyle are bench-pressing farm equipment at lunchtime! ;^)

Moving along, we followed up our football practice with a swim, and then set up our campground – even though Michael and Tim weren't going to be doing that with us. That was because we weren't going to be able to do that in the afternoon while Michael and I were helping out with the party and camping set-up at the Bassett's house. Michael needed to get over to the Inn before we were done doing that; but we did have the tents set up by the time Rowen and Tim left to have lunch at his house. I had a picnic lunch with Ethan and Ehlana by the river that included going for a swim while Mom and Alicia both took a break; and then they were all off to the lab for the afternoon while I went over to the Bassett's house and started helping out with the work there – while also keeping Jessica and Sophia entertained. Ryan was already busy with his best friend; and they stayed close to Michael once he joined us – at least until the rest of his friends started to arrive for the party.

By then, we had the tables and chairs set up; games ready to go; the tents up; and the campfire set along with a small stock of wood that would be enough to keep it going for a couple of hours. Rowen and Tim had stopped by and helped out with some of that work, and we all took a swim break or two mostly as we got the different jobs done; so we had a pretty good afternoon even with all of the work. Michael and Tim ended up leading the game-playing while Rowen and I helped Sylvia and the rest of her cooking crew with everything from making salads to keeping the snacks and drinks flowing from the kitchen to the ravenous group of boys in the back yard.

Dinner was a two-hour long event that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I didn't catch all of because of our baseball and football practices at the park. Michael and Tim actually sat down to eat with Ryan and his buddies; but Rowen and I sort of just ate on the fly while we kept helping out with the work. We were there for the gift opening and birthday cake action, though; and that was a lot of fun. Michael and I hit a home run with the gift Michael picked out for Ryan, and though it wasn't his 'best' gift; it was one of his favorites. The second-half of that dinner marathon was mostly for the parents and volunteers to eat after the kids were fed, and while Michael and I couldn't be there; Sylvia had Erica, Caleb, and some other teens available to keep the play time and games going for Ryan and his buddies. Rowen and I did take Jessica and Sophia with us to the park; but they mostly hung out at the playground with some friends while we were busy – including with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden when Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam brought them over to play for a while too while Dad was busy working in the office.

With our game coming up on Saturday, our practice was fairly serious; and I think we're as ready as we can be for the fourth game in our short season. We don't take the game as seriously with Claire as our coach as we do with Sarah; though I'd say that's more because of Carolyn than her mother for that one year in three that I get to play on their team. That doesn't mean that I don't still like to win just as much as always – it just means that we have fun first and then hopefully play well-enough to win too.

Michael, Tim, and Lucas had fun with their football scrimmage, and in addition to having a lot of the same guys coming out again this week; they're getting some interest in the daily football training too. Lucas gets to stay for that in the morning; and there may be an extra guy or two joining in – if they can get up early enough for that. After keeping up with a gang of seven-year old boys today; Michael and Tim might not get there on time.

Not that hanging out with their girlfriends after the boys were sleeping would have anything to do with why they might be tired out! ;^)

After baseball practice, some of us were ready for a swim, but Michael went straight back to Ryan's party while the rest of us went back to my place. Tim went to help Michael too, but he went swimming with the rest of us first and got changed before doing that. While I wasn't there for it, the gaming was winding down by then and the boys took some time to pick tent mates and get ready for their camping fun before the campfire was started as it got dark out.

We had to do some camping gear organizing then too, but we didn't have a campfire at our campground – we launched a raid on Ryan's campfire instead. He and his friends made a big deal of how awful that was to have a bunch of girls around, but they didn't mind sharing the snacks and drinks we brought along; the campfire music that I helped Michael with; or the scary stories that Lucas and Rebecca helped Michael and Tim with. That was a fun hour and a half or so of action, and then Rowen and I took all of our junior campers back to our tents and got them changed; ready for bed; and tucked in for the night. Rebecca and Lucas stayed to help Michael, Tim, and Ryan's parents with putting out the fire and getting the boys settled down for the night, but Emma and Kylie came back with Rowen and me and went for a swim before getting ready for bed too. They stayed up and joined in for the chat with Rowen and me after Rebecca and Lucas joined us again; but all was nearly quiet at both campgrounds when Rowen decided that I should sneak down to the Bassett's house and trade places with Tim for a while before we all went to bed.

I didn't have a problem with that suggestion; and Michael and I had fun with our little moonlight swim and some cuddle time by the river for nearly an hour until I decided that Tim and I needed to switch back again so that we could all get some sleep. We had fun with that, but I won't classify that little bit of play time as very romantic; since we did get 'caught' by Ryan and his tent buddies. We had to chase them back into their tent a couple of times; but then they stayed there after I started to threaten them with goodnight hugs and kisses too. After that, I think that they blockaded their tent with their camping gear.

It was after one by the time I said goodnight to Michael; met up with Rowen; and sent Tim on his way again. Rebecca and Lucas had still been awake then too; but the four of us turned in after that – with Lucas taking Michael and Tim's normal spot with Ethan and Aiden. Rowen and I have needed some girl chat time that included some talk about coming up with some more frequent alone time for Michael and me along with a recap of some of the highlights for each of us from today. I was doing my usual nightly computing while doing that, and then Ehlana and Naomi woke up and wanted to make a bathroom run; so we all did that and had a bit more chat time while they had a little drink and snack before falling asleep again. Rowen's dozing off now too, and we need to be up early; so I'd better just wrap this up and get started on that nap time.

The big teen fun around town for our soon-to-be Grade Nine class on Friday is going to be Vanessa's fourteenth birthday party, but while we're not on her enemies list anymore; Rowen and I – and Michael and Tim – are not on the guest list. In a small group, that does make us the overwhelming majority of classmates not going to the party; but I don't actually have a problem with that. The days of inviting everyone to every party are likely numbered now that we're all teens anyway – particularly as we start having more 'interest group' friends like we all will in high school. I wouldn't say that we get nuts about that like you see in big high schools; but we do all still spend more time with people who like the same things.

With three baseball games on Saturday, I'm just as happy to get some of my yard work done early; and then I'm planning on spending some play time with my family for a change after we've all had a busy week and not really done much as a group. Writing and thinking about that isn't getting me any sleep time, though, so that's it for tonight; and, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Vanessa!

Tim was elected to drop off her gift from us today, but I didn't see Vanessa at all; so that was the extent of my involvement in her big day. I do hope that she's had fun, but I've had a busy enough day; so not having a party to attend too was okay with me.

Our morning started out with a rush of activity that included an early football practice that meant skipping Tai Chi to do that instead – and we had a gang of kids with us too because Ryan and his buddies, and Ethan and Aiden wanted to come and watch the action at the park – even though we did that before breakfast. The extra-early workout was mostly for Lucas so that the boys could practice; have breakfast; and still get him home in time to work on the farm with his father. I was quarterback again, and Rowen played a bit more today again now that her arm is feeling a lot better; but Rebecca stayed on the sidelines and helped with kid control instead of playing too. I was a bit surprised that two other guys made it to the park in time for most of the workout too, but if either of them are hoping to make the team this season; they have a lot of work to do to catch up to where Michael, Tim, and Lucas are right now – and they all want to be a lot better by the end of August too.

The guys did have fun this morning, though, and then we were off and running again – with Michael and Tim going back to Ryan's house to help out with the work and kid control there while we went back to my house to have breakfast and clean up our own campground. That was the last I saw of Michael until his afternoon break from the Inn. He was busy with his cousin and then some chores at home; and I followed up the campground clean-up with cutting the lawn after everyone else left for the day. I wanted to get that – and some gardening – out of the way today because we have three ball games on Saturday; and that work filled up the rest of my morning.

Without a birthday party to attend, I was free to spend the afternoon playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; so that's exactly what I did – with some help here and there from Alicia, Rowen, Tim, and Michael at different times when they were available to hang out with us. There was a canoe ride and ice cream run to the Emporium that included a visit to the falls; a bike ride at the park; two swims; and some playground and back yard play time that kept us busy until dinnertime. Michael worked the dinner shift at the Inn too because of baseball tomorrow too; so I was dateless for the optional dinner and a hang-out night that Mom and Dad hosted this week.

It was too nice of a day to do a movie night, and while Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack came for dinner; we mostly just had drop-in visitors while we played this evening because everyone else was busy. Violet and Dillon were with us for dinner too, but then they were off and running to hang out with friends – and eventually with Jake and Stephanie too after they were done work for the night. The friends and family visits were fun; but mostly cameo moments. That worked for me too because we got to actually have some family time without the usual craziness; and it was just a fun, quiet evening.

Michael and I spent some time together after he was finished at the Inn too. We went for a bedtime swim with Ethan and Ehlana; took care of tucking them in for the night; and then sat out by the river for a little bit of quiet cuddle time before he needed to head home and get some sleep. The good news there is that he's working the breakfast and lunch shifts at the Inn tomorrow; and then will have the rest of the day off for baseball and to hang out with me. There is definitely going to be some alone time in our future tomorrow night if I have anything to say about it – and I do.

That's one very good reason for me to wrap this up and get some sleep now too; though I should probably make sure that I'm rested up for my ball game. For some reason, at least right at this moment; baseball isn't the higher priority. It's probably a good thing that Michael will be at the Inn while I'm playing the game tomorrow. I might have a tough time focusing on baseball if he was there and I was thinking about some play time with him instead of the action on the field.

I'd better not go there right now, or I won't be sleeping for a while. There isn't anything else to write about from today, and the nightly computer checks were quick and easy – I didn't even have any family business work that needed to get done tonight. Other than baseball, it should be a fairly quiet weekend – which will fit right in with my Michael and me alone time plan for tomorrow night.

Let's hope that works out for us, but for now, I'm out of here; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

It's been a hot, beautiful day for baseball, and while my hopes for a quiet, Michael and me play time evening didn't exactly work out; we did get to have some alone time eventually – which is why this report is coming to you very late considering I'll need to be up early to help out with getting a gang of kids ready for church in just a few hours.

Let's start with the baseball, though; and we'll cover the night-time adventures after that.

Tai Chi, breakfast, and the morning house and yard chores were all uneventful – though the work was easier since I had my biggest chores done already and mostly helped Mom and Dad with theirs. Rowen picked me up on the way to the park for our game; and it ended up being the least-exciting match of the day. We were playing our second game of the season against the Blizzard, and while our first match was close, they had a couple of their best players away today; and we won the game fairly easily – fourteen to five. I guess there is something to be said for having parents that own stores or farms – you're usually home on weekends while they're working; so you don't miss many baseball games. I know that score is really lop-sided, but trust me – we were holding back by the third inning.

Michael and Tim's game was better from a baseball perspective, but not so hot for them or the Lightning because the Storm won their game by a score of twelve to ten. The lead switched back and forth four times, but the Storm didn't need to bat in the bottom of the last inning after getting a three-run homer in a five-run fifth inning rally and then keeping the Lightning to just one run after that. Rowen and I cheered our best with some early help from Ehlana and Naomi before Mom took them home to get out of the hot sun after watching our game too, but considering how hot it was this afternoon; I wasn't surprised that all of the guys were running out of steam by the end of the game.

Michael, Rowen, and Tim all came home for dinner with me, and we started out the rest of our day with a long swim while waiting for the food to be ready. We had seven kids with us by then because we'd been recruited for babysitting duties for the evening, and in addition to Naomi and Aiden; we also had Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia Bassett with us for dinner. Patrick had dinner with the Faulkners, but we have him, Scott, and Lindsay here overnight too – and they met up with us at the park while we were there for Mom and Dad's game. Keeping up with seven kids while swimming and then getting them fed was fairly tiring after an all-afternoon baseball double-header, but we had fun too; and the kids loved hanging out with us and having a picnic by the river and on the dock.

Our evening baseball entertainment had our Beagles up against the Beer Buddies. I'd like to report that our cheerleading was a contributing factor to 'our' second win of the day, but the Beer Buddies were missing key players too; it was hot; and the fourteen to six results didn't have anything to do with our admittedly wilted cheer squad. We weren't even there for nearly two innings when the kids – and Tim and Michael – wanted to go swimming to cool off again instead.

Rowen and I would have stayed at the game, but we couldn't just leave the boys to keep up with five toddlers – particularly when they had to deal with Ryan, Patrick, and Scott too.

By the way, if you're wonder how hot it was today, and don't want to just look it up – it was hot enough that nearly every player on our Beagles team came home with us and went for a swim.

Then they all went to get ready to go out to the pub while Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were kept busy with our gang of ten kids. We stayed in the river and played for more than a half-hour after the parents had moved on; and only got out when Mom and Dad left for the pub. We stayed outside and played for another hour; moved indoors and got the younger kids ready for bed; and then we – the girls – let the boys play video games in the lounge while we mostly just hung out, talked, and listened to some music.

We started losing toddlers not long after that as they went into sleep mode, and Rowen and I took care of most of the transportation to get them from the third floor down to Ethan and Ehlana's rooms. The babysitting job was only half-done by the time that Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends were all in bed; and it took until after midnight before we finally got Patrick and Scott to at least go to their guest room for the night and switch to portable gaming. Mom and Dad didn't get home until a bit after one, but we didn't get any alone time before then because we had random kid issues that kept one or more of us busy pretty much that entire time.

So how did Michael and I get that alone time, you ask? That's easy – he wandered up to the lounge after Mom and Dad went to bed and Rowen just happened to end up picking that exact same time to go and say goodnight to Tim in his room on the second floor – which was conveniently located next to the back stairs. No, we didn't avoid parental detection, though I'm sure that Tim thinks that we did; but Mom was not worried about any of us getting too adventurous with a house full of kids and parents around.

That does not mean that Michael and I didn't have fun because we did – and some of that entertainment was fairly hot and clothing-optional. Our comparatively limited play time for two could be affecting my perception of the hot scale, but all that really matters is that we did get to spend that time together and had a bit of the kind of fun that we'd both like to have a bit more of than we have lately. Michael went back to his room after about an hour and a bit – after we decided that it would be a bad idea to just cuddle together and probably fall asleep on the sofa together. I was in bed and doing my late-night computing for a while by the time Rowen joined me again and snuggled with Mandy while I worked and we chatted.

I won't go into the details of that chat, but she and Tim had fun too – and she hadn't been all that interested in trading him for Mandy as a cuddle buddy for the rest of the night.

No offense, Mandy – Rowen does love you too; just not the same way. ;^)

Thanks to the sudden batch of memories from the movie 'The Truth About Cats And Dogs' revolving around the difference between loving your pet and 'loving' your pet; I really wish that I hadn't gone there. Let's move on and wrap this up so I can get started on my nap.

Rowen and I have had a nice little chat while I was getting some family business work out of the way, but there isn't any news to report from email or elsewhere. I haven't mentioned Violet and Dillon, but that's mostly because I haven't seen them much today. They'd mostly been with his family or out with their friends; and Violet conveniently chose a sleepover at his house over being stuck here on Sunday morning and vying for bathroom time with fourteen kids and teens.

I wonder if I'll be doing those kinds of sleepovers with Michael after our first year of college? Then again, I am my Aunt Leanne's niece; so I'll just go ahead and take the under on that bet.

That thought does have me tempted to sneak downstairs and cuddle with Michael for the rest of the night even if I might get in trouble, but I will resist; settle for a few happy dreams instead; and call it a night now. Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

I'm sure that it's no surprise that our morning was a bit of a mad rush of activity pretty much from the time that we finished Tai Chi until we got to church and could have a nap during the sermon.

Just kidding, Pastor John – I napped during Sunday school! ;^)

Okay, I didn't do that either, and we had fun this morning too even with all of the work; but that did set the tone for a very long day that had more work than play in it. Before I get to that, though; let's cover the family cousin vacation news first.

I haven't mentioned Jonathan and Jenny in days, and that's mostly because they've been entertaining themselves and not hanging out with us. That seems a bit strange, but not as strange as saying goodbye was – and including Jenny in that when they left after lunch. She's spending a week with Jonathan and his family while Christina and Josiah are taking a week off to spend with them too before wrapping up their summer here and then heading back to school. I hope that they all have a good week, and while I can't exactly picture Jenny fitting into the Johnson-McEwan family picture; she'll likely have as much fun with Jonathan's older sisters as she's had with Christina around here.

Getting back to the local news, Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne hosted that going away lunch at their house; I spent a few hours playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, and Sophia; and then I went to help out at the Inn during the buffets with Michael after he was finished his afternoon break. The play and swim time was great, and I had fun at the Inn tonight too; but it was again a lot of work too. Doing all of that on a couple of hours of sleep managed to run down my batteries pretty thoroughly, so other than having a wind-down drink and cuddle with Michael at his house after we were done for the night; I was ready to come home and get to bed.

Some Jacuzzi time was in order first to avoid offending my cat after hours of hot, sweaty work in the kitchen, but that did help to relax me – to the point where I'd started to nod off a couple of times before finishing up; getting ready for bed; and snuggling in with Mandy and my computer. I kept the bedtime computing to a minimum because I'm too tired to focus on any important work anyway. I'm going to wrap this up now too and get started on some quality sleep time. Other than football training and our Thursday night camping, we don't really have anything important going on this week so far; but that's okay with me – maybe Michael and I will find a bit more alone time here and there.

For right now, all I'm really interested in is getting some sleep and recharging; so that's all I have for tonight.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, July 28, 2014

I don't have a lot to write about today, but we're planning on a bike trip to Maple Valley after football practice at the Norton's farm tomorrow morning; so I'm going to keep this short anyway and get off to sleep so I'll be ready for that.

Since football has already come up; let's start with that. Tim and Michael had three guys working with them – us – this morning; and there were a few spectators stopping by for a few minutes here and there too. That's mostly been kids coming for an early play session at the playground or adults going for morning walks at the park; but I'm sure that we'll have real spectators once it gets a bit closer to the opening of training camp for the team the last week of August.

Rowen and I still did the same drills with Michael and Tim – even though they got razzed about that a bit; and I was 'quarterback' again while they practiced running routes and plays. I'll humbly admit for Rowen and me that our boyfriends are the best players on the field right now; but Tim is hoping that some of the older guys will start coming around too so that they can see how they stack up against the senior players. He's not sure how they'll manage up against taller, bigger guys in real-game situations. That is a problem for them, though we are working on some things to help out with that; and being smaller can sometimes be an unexpected advantage.

Tim was fairly happy with how the football training went today, but the other guys aren't interested in biking out to Lucas' farm tomorrow; so it could just be the three of them for that practice – along with Rebecca, Rowen, and me. We went back to Michael's house for a swim and snack after we were done at the park; and then Rowen and Tim moved on for the rest of the morning while I stayed and helped out with the chores – including bringing our lawn tractor over and helping Michael with mowing the lawn. Even with our big yards, it really doesn't take long to do that work with two riding mowers on the go. I worked with Miranda and Rebecca on the gardens too and we had a fun little swim break between those two bigger jobs; so it was a pretty good morning even with all of the football and work.

Michael and I had lunch with his family too, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Rowen, Tim, Ethan, and Ehlana. We went for a canoe ride that included stops at the park to play and the Emporium for ice cream treats. We had our frozen snacks at the falls, and then wandered around for a while; including stopping in at the museum and a few other stores on our way back to the canoes. We haven't been into the museum all that many times, but it is still a fun place to visit even if I do have everything memorized already.

Rowen and Tim were doing their own thing again for dinner, and I was with Michael at his house again for our meal – which was quick and easy so that we could have everything cleaned up before Michael needed to get to his ball game. For those of you who don't know this; quick and easy meals at the Stone's house are not the same as pretty much everywhere else – at least when Jacob is home to cook. Even grilled burgers are five-star cuisine; and the side-dishes are just as awesome. Rowen and Tim came over to meet up with us as we were getting the clean-up done, and while the boys went to their practice; Rowen and I went over to my house to do a Magi lesson with Mom.

The latest news from home that we found out about then was that Violet and Dillon have decided to spend this coming weekend in Woodvale. I'm trying not to think about it, but Violet and Dillon obviously are getting ready for their return to school that is now less than three weeks away. I really don't want to go there yet; so let's not and move on.

Rowen and I had fun with our lesson, and when the boys got back from their practice; we went for a swim with them – and with Ethan and Ehlana. Rowen and Tim moved on to her house after that; Michael and I did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; and after we had them tucked in for the night, we came upstairs to the lounge and had an hour or so of fairly entertaining play time before he went home for the night. I'm not going to turn this journal into a haven for literary teen romance voyeurs; but our play time was definitely fairly hot tonight.

I am definitely okay with that – and with actually managing to make more time for that kind of fun than we have so far this summer. We'll try to do better during the second half of our vacation!

We aren't still playing now because we both want to be ready for our second big cycling adventure of the summer, and there isn't really much else to report for today. I've been doing my usual bedtime computing since Michael left and I got changed and into bed with Mandy. There was only one little family business project to deal with tonight, and not much email going around; so I guess that's it for now and I'll get started on getting my batteries charged up and ready to go for morning.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

I'm going to start this update with news from the other side of the world where Grandma and Grandpa have moved on from Japan to South Korea for the middle two weeks of their trip to East Asia.

You're welcome to read their own travel journal for the daily details, but I thought that this would be a good point to leave a few of my own impressions of their adventure so far. The top story they have from Japan probably doesn't really surprise anyone – it's the fallout, both real and rhetorically, from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. The things that Grandma and Grandpa found out through means mundane and Magi are more than a little scary, and while we want to help those affected by the disaster; doing that in an environment that is as politically and socially constrained as Japan is makes doing any work there very difficult.

The problems in Japan are daunting and deteriorating, and while the potential global impact of the ongoing crisis are serious too; the immediate issues are all in-house. We have been offering support since the tsunami and nuclear accident through our charities; but it's more clear to us now that much more needs to be done. What we are going to have a lot of trouble with, though, is getting anything done with all of the obstacles being thrown in the way with nearly every foreign offer of Fukushima-related aid or expertise. This is not the first time that I wish I could just go there and fix the problems, but I'm not sure that even the combined power of every Magi in Witch Falls could deal with a problem that big – even if we could do something that big without revealing ourselves to the world.

Compared to those issues, the economic problems in Japan seem less-critical; but in many ways, those issues are just as important. The governments in Japan can't deal with the disaster expenses without money; and that's a fairly big problem in a deteriorating economic situation. I'm definitely not going into all of those details, but if you are trying to read yourself to sleep; there are other places in the archives where you can find all of the snooze-inducing financial boredom you'd ever need for that purpose. Let's just say that we have big challenges in Japan, and while we will keep trying to find new ways to help out; we don't and won't force our aid on anyone if they don't want it.

I'm tempted to go on a little rant here about the idiocy of pride – both personal and national – but I won't go there either. We would have a much happier planet to live on if there was a lot less of the bad kinds of pride, but that isn't likely going to change anytime soon.

Moving along, and as mentioned already; Grandma and Grandpa are in South Korea, and they'll be starting out their visit there with a play and sightseeing day before getting back to work for a few days. Our family business and charity interests in South Korea are a bit different than is a lot of other places because we use that country – and others – as a stepping stone into North Korea. We would like to do so much more to help the people there; but that's one of the tougher countries to work in and we have very limited success there – and a few too many failures. I'll do another update on that part of their trip in a couple of weeks, but while we'd like to make some progress with our operations there; it's mostly about starting to build relationships right now with a view for the long term.

I guess that's it for the travel news for now, so let's talk bike trips next.

That needs to start with the football report, since our ride started out with the hop over to the Norton's farm for Tim's football workout with Michael and Lucas. Rebecca biked out there with us; but she didn't go on the ride to Maple Valley with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me. Lucas had invited some of his 'farm kid' friends and football players or hopefuls; and had four guys answer the call – and get out of their chores for a couple of hours to do that with him. Garth Green, Luke Taylor, and the Johnson brothers – Jason and Marc – all know Lucas pretty well; and Garth and Luke were particularly interested in finding out what Lucas had been doing hanging out with Michael and Tim – as if getting to spend extra time with Rebecca wasn't enough of a reason.

While I'm thinking along those lines, it was a bit weird for Rebecca to be there with Lucas while Jason was there too; but he honestly didn't seem to have a problem with the situation at all. I'd actually suggest that Garth was the one feeling a bit jealous of Lucas today – and possibly wishing that he'd tried dating Rebecca instead of Jenny. He's mellowing a bit this summer from what I saw today, but I still can't see him as Rebecca's type at all; and he definitely wasn't a year ago when making the football team had his ego flying high. He's a big, strong guy, and I'm sure that he'll make the team again this year; but he also needs to do some work considering how he stacked up against most of the other guys this morning. In his case, being big did not help him with the drills Tim is running, though to be fair to him; he shouldn't be able to keep up with guys who are hoping to be receivers or running backs – at least not for more than the first ten or fifteen yards.

Rowen and I ran most of the usual drills with the boys, and I quarterbacked again too; but the fun level for us is going down a bit the more guys Tim has working out with him. We get razzed no matter how well we do; and that gets old fast. I resisted the urge to toss a couple of really hard throws at a couple of the guys who were the worst offenders for that, but I'll also leave them nameless here and not embarrass them over that kind of teen nuttiness. Let's not add to the already bloated list of stories that come back to haunt us time and again; and this just isn't that big of a deal.

The time is coming when Rowen and I will start sitting out the football training, though; so don't be surprised if that happens well-ahead of the actual opening of the football training camp. I'll guess that will happen for me just as soon as Tim gets someone working with them who can throw the ball with some minimal amount of accuracy for their route-running drills – something he doesn't have now if it wasn't for me helping out.

I've had enough of the football reporting, so let's move on to the bike ride to Maple Valley adventure part of our day.

We had another awesome day for biking – not too hot; but warm enough to be comfortable in tees and shorts. Before I get to that, I'll mention that we did not leave Rebecca to ride back to town by herself. She stayed at the farm with Lucas and Emma; and got a ride back with Claire after having lunch with them. Claire is also thrilled with her oldest son's choice of girlfriend; and has apparently warned him not to mess it up because she's decided to keep Rebecca and disown him if he does.

I don't actually know for sure whether she's joking about that or not. ;^)

Our ride to Maple Valley was faster than the one to Brookbridge because we could kick up the pace quite a bit compared to biking with Dawn, Jillian, and the others. I should have visited Maple Valley in the summer before now. It's a lot more fun to wander around when it's hot out – even without the festival activities. There isn't anything bigger than a creek in town, but there is a small lake or big pond at the park; and cooling off with a swim was an option. We had our picnic lunch there too, and spent nearly two hours there before needing to hit the road again and head home.

We're not going to get that many more chances to do these all-day rides this summer, but I have to say that we really had a lot of fun with just the four of us, and it didn't feel nearly as tough of a workout with the faster speed and shorter time each way. The Tour de France winner doesn't have anything to worry about from us anytime soon; but I think we did pretty well for our age covering about seventy miles in total in one day.

After getting home, we went for a swim with Ethan and Ehlana, and then Rowen and Tim left while Michael stayed for dinner before we needed to get to the church for our teen praise team practice. We spent more than an hour doing that to get ready for the service on Sunday; and then we went back to my house for another swim with the twins. Mom did a Magi lesson with us after that; we spent a little time playing with Ethan and Ehlana before putting them to bed; and then Michael had I had a second night in a row with a bit of play time for two in the lounge. We also didn't really watch a movie; and wrapped up our night with a bedtime swim before he went home and I came back up to my room and got ready for bed.

I needed to get some work done tonight; so I've been working on my computer for an hour and a half and change. That's mostly been family business-related; though there were a few emails to read and answer too. We're mostly doing a work day tomorrow, so the fun level will be dropping for a day or two – at least until our Thursday night camping adventure. We're definitely not going to do any more major biking trips, and while we've talked about another canoe trip; that won't likely happen this week either.

There isn't anything else to cover tonight, and I'm starting to get tired out; so let's just wrap this up and call it a night.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Nothing happened today; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

***

Okay, that was fun for a change; but my was slightly more eventful than that – if not by much. Yes, it was a work day, but we managed to have a bit of fun here and there too; and it's been another hot, amazing summer weather day too. That was good for Tai Chi this morning; breakfast on the back porch; and a little swim in the river time for Ethan, Ehlana, and me before they went to the lab with Mom for the morning and I got to work in the office – along with doing some laundry and house work with Alicia.

Mom brought a small gang home with her for lunch, and Alicia and I did most of the work getting the food ready for that. The twins and I had that meal out on the dock while the adults and college teens hung out around the back porch. When Mom went back to work at the lab, I kept Ethan and Ehlana with me and we went for a bike ride to the park. Michael met up with us there for his afternoon break, but Rowen and Tim were doing their own things today – and that's plural because they weren't doing that together.

I know, it's shocking; but even us 'town kid' couples have to spend some time apart now and then due to other commitments.

While we were with Michael, we biked the main trail once; ran around at the playground; went for a swim; and then ended that time with a ice cream run to the Emporium. We ate those ice creams while sitting by the river behind the Inn, and then Michael went back to work while Ethan, Ehlana, and I went home and hung out in the back yard until dinnertime. It was a quick and easy meal night; I was back at the park to help out with kid control during the co-ed baseball practice; and then Mom and Dad took us home and opted for another quiet night there instead of some pub fun with their friends. Mom did a Magi lesson with the twins and me; I took care of getting them off to bed; and then I came straight up to my room after that.

Michael and I decided not to get together after he was finished work tonight; mostly because he had some things to do too; and we both wanted to get a good night of rest ahead of our weekly camping night. Yes, we do seem to have had too much of the responsibility ethic rubbing off on us from our parents, but that isn't likely going to change for us; so we'll just deal with it. We don't exactly have anything to complain about – though I suppose that some kids and teens would disagree with that when it comes to the work side of Michael's life.

I only had the basic nightly computer checks left to do by the time I was tucked into bed with Mandy, so that didn't take long to get finished; and there isn't any major email news to report from around the family. Christina did send me a mid-week update, and it sounds as though Jenny's having fun hanging out with Jonathan and meeting all of his buddies, but Jenny's apparently too busy to send any email of her own – though I haven't checked with Rebecca to see if she heard any news from Jenny today. She may be too busy now, but I'm sure that we'll hear all about the trip when she gets back on Sunday – especially if she's home in time to help out with the Sunday buffets.

That's all I have for now, and while this wasn't a very exciting day full of amazing adventure, I did have fun with Ethan and Ehlana; and with the rest of my family and Michael when we were together too; so I'm a happy camper. With the extra sleep, I'll be an even happier camper tomorrow night; so I'm going to get to that right now.

Live long and... oh wait, I already did that. Now how am I supposed to end this?

This is the archive that never ends; yes it goes on and on my friends; some Magi started writing it not knowing what it was; and now we're stuck with eons worth of useless facts because...

...This is the archive that never ends...

If I'm still around when you read this in the future, and can't get that song out of your head; please don't yell at me – it seems funny to me right now.

Yeah, you're probably right – I'll get some sleep now and see if my sense of humor can recover with a bit of rest.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

This is going to be a quick update because I'm writing it before getting started on what will be the best part of the day – our camping adventure. I don't want things like work, email, or anything else to get in the way of that fun; so I'm doing the nightly computing thing now. I'm not even going to take my computer out to the tent tonight!

Why not, you ask – because I'm planning on having fun with Michael, Rebecca, and our friends; and we're going to be doing that without any younger kids to take care of for a change. It's just going to be us, Lucas, Tim, and Rowen. Ethan and Ehlana are doing a sleepover with Naomi and Aiden; but they're doing that indoors this week. For the record, that wasn't our idea – Mom mandated it; and then Dad had some fun teasing us about not having our chaperones with us tonight. He supposedly only agreed to the plan when he was assured there were only going to be two tents set up for the six of us. Three apparently would have been a problem – though I liked the idea. ;^)

I'll give you the camping report tomorrow, and it won't take much for that to be more exciting than the rest of my day so far. There wasn't really anything going on that was very much different than yesterday except that Michael and I took the twins canoeing instead of biking during his afternoon break today. Baseball practice tonight wasn't that exciting, though that was more because Jenny wasn't the only player skipping the practice; so we didn't quite have enough players for a full practice. In contrast, Michael, Lucas, and Tim had more guys at their football scrimmage.

Maybe that was because it's the last day of the month, and more guys are thinking about the upcoming season now that it'll be August in a few hours, but whatever the reason; they had a fairly enthusiastic game – and had more spectators watching them than we had at our practice.

I'm sure that the guys will be talking football while we hang out around the tents tonight; but Rebecca, Rowen, and I should be able to divert their attention from sports now and then too. I'll let you know how that goes too with the next update because I'm ready to go outside and play again now; and I am definitely in the mood to spend some quality time distracting my boyfriend and having some fun!

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
August 2014

Friday, August 1, 2014

Happy first day of August!

Before I get to the news from today, let's back up and cover the camping adventure from last night.

We had a blast, and while I love playing with the twins and their friends; it was really nice to just have a teens-only night for a change. Jenny would have loved it too, but then the parental approval might have been different if we'd had four couples and four tents. Then again, only having two tents didn't keep us from having some couples alone time – it just meant that Michael and I were the odd couple out while Rebecca and Lucas and Rowen and Tim paired up in the two tents. Don't feel bad for Michael and me. We had fun too; and there's a lot to be said for playing in the water. No, we didn't go skinny-dipping, but we swam all the way to the park; wandered around there for a while; and swam back home again with regular make-out intermissions along the way. I'm not bragging or anything, but I'm fairly sure that the river temperature went up a couple of degrees downriver of us! ;^)

Our return timing nearly coincided with Rebecca and Lucas reappearing from our – the girls' – tent; and it was fairly obvious that they had as much fun as we did – though I'm sure that Michael didn't ask Lucas for any details once we were all in our tents for the night. Rebecca, Rowen, and I definitely had some girl-chat time then; though we didn't really talk for long before we all started falling asleep. Since it was after two by then and we were going to be up early for breakfast and sports; that was okay with all of us – even if it might have been fun to talk all night too.

There wasn't a campfire last night because we didn't want to have any of the usual gang of younger kids upset about missing out on that kind of fun, but we did have some play time that included an earlier swim and a game of glow in the dark Frisbee. Nobody reading this will be surprised to hear that the boys talked football quite a bit; and Tim has even bigger plans for the next three weeks leading up to the week of training camp. While I'm thinking about that, and it was something that Tim talked about – Kyle left today for his college and the start of training camp for his new team. I was a bit surprised that there wasn't a big farewell party for him, but he apparently wanted to spend his last night here with Erin Green instead. She'll be going to the same college, but doesn't leave until the same weekend as Violet and Dillon do; so this will be their first long separation since they started dating.

Getting back to the update, we really did have an awesome time last night, and we were all in a really good mood this morning too – even without getting a lot of sleep. Michael and I were up early for Tai Chi; we all got ready for the day; and Mom sent us off to the park with a picnic breakfast so that we could multi-task the football and food. Rebecca, Rowen, and I were the only girls there, and we get razzed about it every time; but it was still fun having Lucas, Michael, and Tim chase us some of the drills and the route and play practices were fun too – though Rebecca sat out for a lot of that part of the workout.

The practice wrapped up in time for Lucas to catch his ride home, and the rest of us went for a swim at my house before we packed up our tents and camping gear. Michael, Rowen, and Tim all moved on after that; and I spent the rest of the morning getting a head start on my weekend chores again by mowing the lawn. Ethan and Ehlana went with Naomi and Aiden to KidZone for the morning, so I picked them up there and had lunch with them – and Mom and Alicia – before we then moved on to some biking, swimming, and play time at the park that Michael joined us for after finishing up with the lunch shift at the Inn.

That brings us to the start of the best parts of the day for me – and for Michael, Rowen, and Tim too. Michael and Tim surprised Rowen and me with a date night. In my case, Michael told me about it when we got back to my house so that I'd have enough time to get ready after handing off Ethan and Ehlana to Alicia and Mom. While I was grabbing a shower and getting dressed for 'casual dining and outdoor play and swimming', Violet was getting ready to leave for Woodvale with Dillon; so I was able to say goodbye to her too and have a little chat before we each went our separate ways. I hope she's having fun this weekend, but I'll guess that Michael and I had more fun – we didn't have a three or four hour drive to do; depending on how much traffic they had to deal with on a Friday night.

I can back that claim up with just the first part of our date night – which was a gourmet dinner straight from the kitchen at the Inn with two of Jacob's specialty entrees and everything from appetizers to sides and an Olde Bakery dessert. It might not always be fun when Michael has to help out at the Inn so much of the time, and especially on holiday weekends; but he's way ahead of any other guy our age when it comes to date night dinners – and Tim is very happy to be able to enjoy that kind of thing with his best friend while also impressing his girlfriend too.

Rowen and I are going to keep them – not that we're just in it for the food.

We had dinner out on the back porch at Michael's house, and the boys did all of the serving and clean-up work even if they didn't have to cook any of the food – though I guess Michael did have to warm up a couple of the side dishes that he'd brought home with him after lunch. Since we don't have any other dining options in town for us other than the Inn, and Michael doesn't really want to do date nights there with his family hovering around; their plan for tonight was awesome. Maybe when we can drive we'll expand our dating options to include trips to Crystal Springs or elsewhere, but until then; I'm very okay with teen-only dinners like this one.

Once they'd finished with the clean-up, Michael and Tim took us for a canoe ride, and I knew that at least one of my parents had been in the know about the surprise date because one of our canoes had been moved downriver and tied up at Michael's dock. Yes, they have more than one canoe too, but since Miranda and Jacob don't exactly get to have a lot of play time and our canoes get a lot more use; it's usually easier to borrow one of ours than to get their extra canoes ready to use. We paddled upriver for nearly an hour; went for a long swim and play in a nice, fairly secluded spot; and then paddled home again. We went for one more swim at Michael's house after that, and then split up for the rest of the night.

Michael and I came over to my house, and we were in time to tuck the twins in for the night and do a little bedtime story and chat with them before they went to sleep and we moved on to end our date night watching a movie in the lounge. We didn't really watch it, but that was okay with both of us because our play time was way more fun – and the movie was really, really bad. I'll skip the making-out details, but while I'm there anyway; I have to wonder if the SyFy channel movies could possibly get any worse than their latest batches of disaster and monster movies.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about in the future, you can either be very glad; or try looking up some flicks that really ought to be considered genre spoofs they're so bad. The latest one this week, and let's not ask why Michael 'saved' it, is Sharknado 2 – and yes, someone really thought that it was possible to make a bad movie even worse. I'm all for the fun of watching major cities get destroyed in disaster movies, but having a storm drop sharks of all sizes onto the city is just a bit too much for me.

You can also take that as an example of the down-side to having a photographic memory – I can remember every detail of all movies I watch whether they're good or really, really bad – even when I'm just picking all of that up in the background. The good news there is that I can also ignore that continual sensory input when having more fun doing something else – like making out with Michael. Think of it as a built-in, Magi-powered DVR; and you're not that far off from how that works for me – though add in that my memories include all senses; not just sight and sound.

Instead of watching a replay of sharks munching on New York and the people there, though; I'm going to wrap this up and head off to dreamland by spending some time with the Michael and me play time parts of those memories. That couple of hours definitely ranked highest on the hot meter for us for this week; and I think that's a very good sign for the start of August. There are lots of things on my 'wish I could do more of that' list, but for once; enough Michael and me alone time fun is not one of those things.

Now we just need to keep that off of the list. That may or may not happen, but one way or the other; we'll have fun trying! ;^)

Okay, I'd better finish this before I need to go have a cold shower before going to sleep. We don't have baseball this weekend, and no major plans of any kind; so our first weekend of August is going to be fairly quiet. Maybe that'll give me a chance to do some other things from that list – like hang out with my uncles, aunts, and cousins; but I honestly don't know what they have on the go this weekend – other than that Mom and Dad didn't do a dinner and a movie night because everyone else was busy with other commitments. If anything exciting does come up, though; you'll be able to flip a digital page or two and found out about it right away – unless you're as tired as I am right now and want to have a nap too.

That is it for now, though; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

There isn't really anything particularly exciting to report for this update; but we've still had one of those really good days.

Tai Chi and breakfast helped to get the day off to the usual good start; and we followed that up with a few hours of yard work that was mostly dirty work in the gardens for me. While I'm thinking about gardens, I should mention that I haven't mentioned gardening at Grandma and Grandpa's house while they're away because we're not doing any of that work. They hired help for the yard work; and one of the young neighbor mothers is trading free veggies for getting part of the crop back in canned and frozen goods. Dad and Aunt Leanne would have done the work if they'd asked, but let's be honest – none of us really wanted to add six weeks of that work to our already packed schedules.

We wouldn't have had nearly as much fun today if there had been another few hours of work to do there too; so I'm really glad that having a play afternoon and evening was an option – especially when it also meant getting to spend some quality time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and a few friends. That started with a barbeque lunch that Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack joined us for once we were all done our chores for the day. I'll get to that part of the story in a moment, but before I do that; this is a good place for a family pregnancy update.

Since Aunt Grace was with us first today; let's begin with the latest with her – and it's big news!

Her baby is a Magi!

That really is news for some of us, since today was the first time that Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I could sense the Magi aura growing within Aunt Grace. I won't tell you that it was a surprise to three of us, because it wasn't – even if we didn't know the exact timing for when that would become physically – or empathically – apparent to others. As with all babies, nobody else could sense that yet too; and most Magi in town won't be able to do that at all right up until the baby is born – except for the few who have been allowed to find out how to sense auras. I'm sure that Mom has talked with Dad about it by now, but they'll need to have a chat with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and probably at least a few members of the council before deciding how to handle things with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace. The baby will be much better off if they can do some pre-natal development, but that would mean adding two more non-Magi to the fairly exclusive club of adults who know about us. I don't know for sure whether the council will balk at that – particularly when one of those people aren't even from a home-town family; but the twins and I do know what is supposed to happen.

Stay tuned – I'll keep you posted on that story.

Aunt Deborah's pregnancy is a bit ahead of Aunt Grace's; and she's already working on her pre-natal development and the empathic link. Mom's still available if needed; but Aunt Deborah knows what she's doing now, and is even teaching some Magi mothers the techniques since she's in a good position to do that through the clinic. Both babies and their mothers are doing fine; though they'll need to start taking it a bit easier for the rest of the summer – especially on the hottest days.

We had really awesome weather for our play time and barbeques. Lunch was simple, with burgers, dogs, and cold salad sides. Ethan, Ehlana, and I stayed with Zack and the parents today instead of having a picnic on the dock like they preferred to do most of the time. I took a turn at keeping Zack entertained, but left the feeding mess to Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam. Zack may be a very strong Magi, and his education is humming right along; but he's quite possibly one of the messiest Magi babies of all time. If he's just making that part of his 'normal baby' act, he isn't admitting it to anyone; but does seem to enjoy making the messes and watching the reactions from everyone around him. Today was not the first time I've wondered whether he has just a few too many genes in common with Chris and Martin; and that's more than a little scary to think about him growing up to be like them while having the kind of power he'll have.

Let's not go any farther down that thought path and move along.

We played all afternoon, and that included a canoe ride; games in the back yard; some playground time at the park; and one or more swims. Michael joined us during his afternoon break for one of the swims and the playground action; but then he was back at work again and didn't come back until his family joined us at the campfire after closing the Inn for the day. Our barbeque dinner was more substantial than lunch, and in addition to having Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and Leah with us; we also had quite a few friends with us too – including the Emersons, Burroughs, Seagers, and Drapers.

Dinner was late to accommodate the working parents, but I helped out with kid control as they were dropped off or came over with at least one parent. Naomi and Aiden had spent part of the afternoon with Ethan and Ehlana, but they were easier to take care of than Leah, Zack, Eli, Hailey, and Rebekkah. I had some help with the kids from Rowen and Tim when they came over with Patrick ahead of Rowen's parents; and Tim did pretty well with entertaining the boys – even if he pretends that it's the worst job in the world. Maybe I'll pick up a couple of blow-up footballs the next time I'm in the city and see if he's happier if he can play football with Zack and the other younger kids.

Our evening meal had 'real' food involved compared to lunch, with chicken and steak options off of the grill; corn on the cob; baked potatoes; and several side veggies and salads. The Drapers provided the Olde Bakery dessert and buns; and everyone else contributed at least one dish or some of the meats – even if that only meant dropping off something earlier than Mom, Dad, and their volunteer crew cooked up. Tim, Rowen, Patrick, and I were at a pair of kids' tables; and this time, I did help out with feeding the younger kids – including Zack.

We did not have a food fight, but you wouldn't have known that by the amount of food that was on both Zack and me. I did not wait a half hour before going into the river to clean off; and I took my adorable and messy cousin in with me. Note to me – try putting my hair up in a bun or something when feeding Zack. A ponytail was not enough to keep the food out of my hair; and having Zack yank on it with sticky, dirty hands is really gross. He thought that was hilarious; but it took washing my hair twice tonight to get the last bits of baby food mush out of my hair.

The rest of the evening included a lot of game playing in the back yard, a couple of swims; and a campfire that started at dusk. With our family, friends, and neighbors all staying or coming over for the campfire fun, I wasn't surprised to get called on for some duet action with Michael within minutes of him joining us there with his parents, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca. We actually did most of the music from that point on because we also had one of the shortest campfires of the summer so far – and started wrapping things up by eleven o'clock. That didn't give Michael and I much cuddle time, but we still had fun. We were on the clean-up crew while most of the younger parents dealt with sleeping babies or toddlers and all of our guests started heading home for the night. My goodnight kiss with Michael wasn't exactly memorable either; unless you count the whistles and teasing from Miranda and Jake. Memo number two to me – try not to let Jake have too much time without other friends around him. He has way too much fun teasing Michael when he doesn't have Dillon and Josiah around to keep him busy.

Okay, so the goodnight kiss wasn't anything to write home about – or here in my journal; but I did have an entertaining pair of goodnight chats with Ethan and Ehlana on my way up to my room after they were tucked in for the night. Then it was time for some Jacuzzi action that included getting my hair thoroughly clean. After a busy work and play day, I'm sure that Mandy appreciated my efforts as much as I was happy to get rid of those clumps of sticky that had been bugging me since dinnertime.

I've been doing a light version of my nightly computing since then, and while there wasn't much going on around the family that I heard about through email tonight, I did have a bit of family business work come up; so I spent a half hour or so dealing with that before getting started on this update. That was just some boring number crunching, so I won't put you to sleep with that – though it has helped me to be ready to doze off for the night.

Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah will be home again tomorrow, but other than that; we don't have much going on tomorrow. Dad will be working in the office, and I'll be helping out with the Sunday buffet again; but I don't expect to be doing much of anything else other than the usual Sunday morning action. I do want to be able to keep up with the work at the Inn tomorrow, though; so let's wrap this up and call it a night.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Our streak of weather timing luck came to an abrupt end this morning, though other than being indoors for Tai Chi and getting rained on anytime we were outdoors pretty much anytime until after lunch; it really didn't mess up anything important. After the rain ended, we also had a very nice afternoon and evening.

My morning was especially busy because Michael and I needed to be at the church early for teen praise team warm-ups, so I just had a quick breakfast on the fly between Tai Chi and getting ready for our second appearance leading the music for our service. That, by the way, was a lot of fun; and part of the reason for that was getting to enjoy watching my father and aunt being particularly proud of us for something that they actually could talk about openly with their neighbors and friends. Michael and I didn't do anything special, and just sang our parts in the group; but we still got noticed by a lot of people anyway. I won't toot our own horn on that; other than to comment again that it's really great to both love doing music together and have some talent for it.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about that, if you're musing that we could have fun even if we didn't have any talent for music; don't forget that I have a perfect photographic memory. If I was a terrible singer or musician, I wouldn't be able to do it at all and then be stuck with those permanent bad memories. I get enough of those kinds of moments in everyday life without inflicting them on myself.

Moving along, we stayed indoors as much as possible all morning, and the usual social time after the church service was in the reception hall instead of outside so that we could all stay dry. We drove back and forth between home and the church, so we didn't get totally soaked; and Ethan, Ehlana, and I had Mom and Dad to ourselves for lunch before they got to work in the office and I hung out with the twins until going to help out at the Inn. Michael came over for his break, and we took Ethan and Ehlana swimming and for an Emporium ice cream snack break that Mom and Dad joined us for and sponsored.

We didn't spend much time with Rowen and Tim today, but they were busy with other things too. It was a busy day at the Inn, so we only took little breaks here and there while trying to keep up with the work. The entertainment while we worked came from Jenny. I was a little surprised that she decided to help out, but there's also a chance that had more to do with wanting to tell Rebecca and me all about her adventures with Jonathan, his family, and friends than about making a few bucks after a week off.

Without going into the details that I don't really need to know; I'll just concede that Jenny had a more exciting week than Rebecca or I did here. Some of those adventures would have been fun, but there were other things that she told Rebecca and me about that were too much info for me; and uncomfortable for Rebecca. I totally get why Jenny needed to talk with her best friend; but have to wonder if she totally forgot that Rebecca did have a tough time getting over Jonathan. I'm sure that everyone who has ever experienced that first-love break-up after crossing over can relate to that; but I'll also mention that Rebecca handled the situation really well.

Other than being really busy at the Inn, I don't really have much else to report from there. Since you already know that Jenny was with us there, you know that Christina and Josiah were back home by then; and Violet and Dillon were home in time to go to the late buffet at the Inn with our collective families too. I missed out on that, and Jake and Stephanie joined their four friends at my house for some chat time after we closed the Inn; but that's why Michael and I had our wind down cuddle time at his house instead. Rebecca went home with Jenny tonight; so we had a little visit with his parents while having that cuddle time; and then I went home after that when we were all ready to call it a night.

I was back in time to tuck Ethan and Ehlana in for the night, and followed that up with some Jacuzzi time that I again really needed – and Mandy appreciated. Your cat might not tell you about things like that; but Mandy doesn't have a problem with a little honesty with me – not that she said anything tonight. I wouldn't have been spending any time cuddling with Michael if I was fragrant enough to have her actually complaining. ;^)

Violet and Dillon are still hosting their friends, but Mom and Dad have gone to bed now; and I'm going to be in nap mode about five minutes after I wrap this up. Compared to last week, we actually have quite a bit on the go this week – starting with a birthday party tomorrow for Denise. That'll be an especially big deal for her, since it'll be her first big event with new boyfriend, Luke; but I'll have more on that with my next update. While I'll be at her party with Michael, Tim, and Rowen; I'll miss out on the future plans and family business meeting; but Ethan and Ehlana will handle a couple of things that it's time to pass on to Mom and Dad now. I'll do an update for that too, but it might not be until Tuesday night if I don't get the news from that meeting whenever I get home tomorrow night.

There's rain in the forecast off and on again through a lot of the coming week, but if the weather cooperates; this is a baseball weekend with a game on Friday night and two on Saturday. Weather might affect our tentative plan for another Tuesday biking adventure after football; but I'll keep you posted on that too. Rain won't get in the way of our camping night – we'd just move that indoors if needed. I'm expecting another baseball night babysitting gig on Friday; though Mom and Dad haven't confirmed that with me yet. There isn't much else going on other than baseball for the weekend; but we are having our third-annual amusement park adventure next Monday and Tuesday. I don't have all of the details for that either yet, but it is apparently going to be bigger and better than last year.

I'd say that's looking far enough into the future for tonight, and I'm really ready to get some sleep now instead of waiting up for Violet and a bit of girl-chat time. We can do that sometime tomorrow instead; and I have no idea how long she'll be up with Dillon and the others. The next couple of weeks should be a lot of fun, and I should get the rest when I can; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Denise!

Have things ever changed in a year! While we were celebrating Denise's birthday today, this was also a significant day for Rowen for a different reason – it's the one-year anniversary for Tim's big break-up with Nora. We certainly didn't bring that up today around our friends – or even with Tim and Michael – but I'm sure that we weren't the only two teens to remember one of the biggest teen drama stories of last summer.

Before I get into the news from Denise's party, though; let's do a quick review of the rest of the day.

Michael came over for Tai Chi; I had breakfast at his house; we went to the park for the football practice; and then I helped out with the chores at his house so that we could have the work done by lunchtime. I had lunch there too, and then Michael and I met up with Rowen and Tim for a couple of hours of biking at the park before we needed to get ready for the party. Since Denise is a farm girl, even having her party start at four was an early end for her day; though the work there didn't completely stop until nearly dark – her father and the summer farm hands just worked around us. Violet gave us a ride out to the Burroughs farm, and just in case any future readers don't know this; yes, Denise and her family are distant relatives of the Pastors. That's actually going back quite a few generations to the common ancestors; so they're not any closer to the 'church' Burroughs than anyone else in the congregation.

Denise's party started out with a long social hour, but the guys were soon tossing a football around while the girls took care of the socializing. It would be more honest to call what we were doing gossiping; and the changing social status of our friends was high on the list of chat topics. Denise's new relationship with Luke was an obvious favorite, but the other new couples got a lot of attention too. Since Nora and Elliott were one of those new couples, there was zero risk of a repeat from last year with her; but it was awkward a couple of times to see her watching Tim and Rowen in a way that made it obvious that she was remembering what had happened last summer – and not in a fond way.

Elliott seemed to understand what was going on with her; and I think he did pretty well with both handling it and distracting Nora so that she didn't dwell on her personal romantic history too much. That didn't get talked about among the girls either, but we had lots of other things to keep ourselves entertained with – including some frequent goofiness from the guys as a few of them were in 'impress the girls' mode today. Rowen and I stayed away from playing football at the party, but we did play games, and since it was really hot out; going for regular swims in the pond was an option too.

One other major difference this year for Denise's big day was that her party was on a weekday, and while that hadn't really been clear before we got there; a late night event was not in the plans for parents who were used to getting up before dawn to get their work day started. The barbeque dinner, birthday cake, gifts, and song were all pretty normal, and we followed that up with a couple of hours of play time; but then it was time for the party to break up at dusk. While Denise would have liked to at least have added a campfire and hang out with all of us longer, it wasn't all bad; since she did get to keep Luke for a while and spend some alone time with him after seeing the rest of us on our way.

My evening didn't end that way, but Violet and Dillon picked us up; and then went for a swim with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me once we got home. Jake and Stephanie joined us for that too; and then they moved on with Violet and Dillon to hang out at Michael's house for a while. The meeting was still going on at my house, so Michael, Tim, and I went over to Rowen's house with her and hung out on the front porch for a while before we collectively called it a night and Michael walked me home.

I know, it wasn't that late yet, but we are biking out to the Norton's farm in the morning; and we have a tentative plan to bike to Pinehurst after that. Rowen's started to tease Michael and Tim about them wanting to case their division football rivals with these trips; but all of those towns are the closest to us – which is why they are in our division. I mostly just like getting to spend the day biking with my best friends and going places that I either haven't been – or haven't visited during nice weather. Our plans are tentative because we're going to wait to decide until morning when we check the latest forecast.

While Michael and I weren't staying up late for some cuddle time, I've ended up being busy for quite a while since kissing him goodnight on my front porch. I started with more goodnight hugs and kisses shortly after getting inside because the meeting was wrapping up and my aunts, uncles, and a couple of extra guests were heading home. Then there was a bedtime snack and meeting recap with Mom, Dad, and the twins; and then I took care of getting my brother and sister to bed while Mom and Dad took care of some work in the office that they hadn't been able to get to yet because of the meeting. I also ended up doing some family business work after coming up to my room, and Violet and I had a little girl chat after she got home for the night and Dillon was actually home at his house for the night; but let's start all of that with the meeting highlights.

First up would have to be the news that Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace are soon going to be getting some rather shocking news later this week. I won't get to be there for that; but it is going to be very interesting to see how they react – and hear about how the pre-natal training goes; since it is going to be a first with a non-Magi mother. Yes, Ethan, Ehlana, and I know a bit about our collective future in this particular area; but we don't know everything by any means, and there isn't anything I want to add to my journal about it right now.

This is going to be fun, though!

I'm sure that you can guess that the lab was at the top of the list for Ethan and Ehlana, and they were very excited to tell me that everything is now nicely ahead of schedule; and the lab will be completely ready ahead of schedule. Ehlana may even get to play there for nearly a full week before it officially opens the day after Labor Day. There will still be much more work to do for the actual business, and employees will be added slowly over the next half-dozen years or so; but the important thing is that the labs will be fully functional; and Uncle Adam and Ehlana can start doing their work in earnest. The migration of our entire Magi archive will kick up a few notches too, and Mom and Ethan will coordinate all of that work with Grandpa Grant, Grandma Eleanor, and any other volunteers who help out with that.

With even the finishing work pretty much finished at the lab, the construction work on the new medical center has picked up a gear or two, and while the wet spring had slowed things down; that project is close to being on-time again. Mom expects the outer building to be closed in by Thanksgiving as planned; and that'll give the construction workers something to do all winter. There are other construction projects going on in the new section of town, but the only two I'll mention here are the houses that the Byrds and Carters are building along the river. The main reason I'm mentioning them is because they each have a daughter the same age as Ethan and Ehlana; so they'll be classmates and friends – particularly with Ehlana and Naomi – so I expect to get to know them a lot better over the years as they all grow up together.

Outside of the family business, but part of the action around town is the work at the church and a new business that is going to be opened up late this fall. The construction work going on at the church is mostly out of sight right now because they're doing remodeling inside to get ready for the addition when they start building it next year. Other work either has or will include preparing the ground where the addition will be going and moving utilities and pipes as needed – or running new lines for power, water, and gas. I'm not exactly writing up a lot of information about that sort of thing in town, but if you have some future burning need to know how those things worked in our time; there are sources available in the archives now that Mom's added for the history of Witch Falls section. I'm sure that you can understand why things like water and septic tanks just aren't all that interesting to any teen – even a Magi Master teen.

The new business coming to town is going to be a second-hand charity store, and we know this because Aunt Leanne will have the rental deal for it set up by the end of August. The owners will start working on the place at the start of October; and expect to be open in time for Thanksgiving and the Christmas shopping season. There's some bank financing involved that our family business is backing; but that's really our only involvement. We do plan on making regular clothing donations too; so I'll start that out by going through all of my clothes and getting some boxes ready once I've picked up my back-to-school wardrobe.

There were a lot of smaller issues that were dealt with at the meeting, but I won't go over everything. With college kids heading out to school again soon, plans for some of them were worked on; and so were plans for some high school seniors who might be interested in considering certain career and education goals. There was a general review of the family business too; and that's all pretty much good news as everything is continuing to improve in nearly every area – despite the seemingly unending global problems.

I'm skipping a lot of things, but will mention anything important as events happen. It was heading toward midnight by the time I got up here to my room, and while I hadn't planned on staying up too late, some business-related email needed to be taken care of; and that took over an hour to finish – with a break in the middle for my chat with Violet. I'm glad that she stopped by, since I hadn't gotten the weekend update yet after ending up at Michael's house all morning. They had a great weekend in Woodvale; though it was a bit of a whirlwind with three family meals and no real time for a visit with Violet's best high school friends. She really does try to keep in touch with them at least through phone calls, messages, and email; but choosing to be here does have some costs for her – and her best friends haven't exactly been in a rush to come here and visit her – even though they do have an open invitation.

Violet only talked with me for about a half-hour, and then she was ready to get some sleep while I finished my work and the rest of my usual bedtime computing. It's heading toward two o'clock now, so I really need to finish this up and get some sleep if I plan on having enough steam for another long bike ride tomorrow. We dodged one rain-day forecast so far, and I hope we do that again tomorrow; but I seriously doubt our luck will hold out all week. One more day would be good, though; and I wouldn't mind a rain day when we're working on Wednesday anyway.

I'll let you know if Mother Nature cooperates with that plan, but that's it for tonight; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

We really have lucked out with dodging the rain for our play days this summer, and we did that again today for our bike ride to Pinehurst.

Michael and I started our day as usual with Tai Chi; grabbed a quick breakfast at my house; we got cleaned up and ready to go; took Rebecca with us; and met up with Rowen and Tim for the ride out to the Norton farm for the weekly football training camp out there. Lucas had the same group of guys there to exercise with him – and Michael and Tim; so Rebecca, Rowen, Emma, and I did a little less of the workout with them and had a bit more time to chat and watch the action.

Lucas' father is always busy, but he was passing through while we were working on running routes; and spent fifteen or twenty minutes working with the guys on some techniques – both for blocking and defending. That was fun for the guys, and while I don't really think about Karl as a former football player; he did play in high school – and was apparently pretty good; if not at the level of Lee or Kyle Landry. Since the Landrys have about half of the total college football players from Witch Falls ever now; that statement applies to nearly every other high school football player, so Karl is still in good company. He's also big, strong, and faster than some of the boys expected when he ran some of those plays with us today.

Why does that always seem to surprise teenagers? It's not as if our parents are that old; and lots of athletes hit their prime in their thirties or later – including football players.

Anyway, the football workout was fun, and then Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I got started on our bike ride to Pinehurst while Rebecca stayed with Lucas and Emma again with plans to get a ride back to town at lunchtime – or possibly ride back with Emma so that she – Emma – could have some play time with friends in town. Our ride today was only about five or six miles shorter than the one to Maple Valley, but the route was a bit less hilly; and we made great time getting there. We toured the town, picked up food, and had a picnic lunch at the main park in town. We went for a swim too; had a chat with a group of teens that were at the park too; and then picked up snacks and drink refills before heading home again.

Part of the reason for the fast, easy ride to Pinehurst was that we basically had no wind at all, and while we did have a light breeze for the return trip, it was coming at us from the side; and light enough that it really just helped with keeping us cool. Fewer hills to the south-east of town didn't mean no elevation change; and that very gradual rise back toward Witch Falls did slow us down a little bit compared to the ride to Pinehurst. Climbing the hill on Quarry Road is tough enough after two twenty-five mile rides; but Tim wanted to race up into town – and has decided that the biking is great conditioning for football.

That may be true, but I was glad to be home – and even happier to have dinner with Michael at his house. We had a week off from teen praise team practice; so I spent the evening with Michael and his family too – though Jake and Stephanie went out for a while to hang out with Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah. We had dinner; Michael, Rebecca, and I took care of the clean-up; and then we mostly had a quiet play evening. Michael and I had a music practice; we all went for a swim; and then five of us watched a bit of television before Michael and I were left on our own in the living room for some cuddle time.

That little break didn't rank very high on the hot scale, but we were both tired by then anyway; so cuddling and sharing a few kisses was a nice way to wind down before I came home. Ethan and Ehlana were already in bed by then, but they weren't sleeping; so I stopped in for goodnight hugs, kisses, and chats with them on my way up to my room. I had a chat with Mom and Dad in the office before that, but they were wrapping up their work for the night; so we kept that little visit short too.

I needed some Jacuzzi time tonight, so that was first on my to-do list by the time I got to my room; though I didn't go with a long soak – mostly because I started nodding off while in the tub. Tomorrow is a work day anyway, so while I probably should have done some family business work tonight; I decided to go to bed early instead and just put in the extra work then instead. That's why I kept the rest of my usual nightly computing to a minimum too; and don't have anything else from that newsworthy enough to mention here. I guess that's it for today, so I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

I'm very happy with the weather we've had this summer, but I can't help commenting on the somewhat wacky forecasting that makes it tough sometimes to make plans more than a handful of hours ahead of time.

While I was working a lot today anyway and what the weather was like didn't matter from a play perspective; that doesn't change the fact that weather forecasters – at least in our area – are having trouble with their predictions. That lack of accuracy worked out great for Tai Chi and football this morning; some swimming and play time this afternoon; and Mom and Dad's baseball practice this evening and the play time that I had with Ethan and Ehlana while they were busy.

All of that, and most of my family business work tonight, was fun; but I don't have anything particularly newsworthy to write about from any of that. In fact, the only real news of the day is about the meeting that Aunt Leanne, Dad, Mom, and Uncle Adam had with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace after baseball practice here at our house. Michael was hanging out with me by then, and we took care of Ethan, Ehlana, and Zack in the lounge while they were busy with that; and I'm sure that it was just as entertaining as the meeting about Violet was a few years ago.

I'm sure that Mom will have a full write-up about it in her own journals, so I won't pass on a lot of second-hand information; but we did talk about it for a little while once my aunts, uncles, cousin, and Michael had all gone home for the night. They did a pretty good job of hiding it while they were still at the house with us – and with Michael – but Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace are definitely a bit freaked out right now. The council always has doubts when outsiders are told about any of us, but I'm not worried about that with my aunt and uncle. They love us; they are going to love their baby; and they will protect us. For right now, the 'us' is very limited, and they'll never know about Magi outside of our family; but they also weren't told about all of us either.

For the purpose of this journal, though, the important thing is that Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam already began the first step in the baby's prenatal training. Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace don't know this, but Mom helped Aunt Leanne with making the first empathic link, and since she's already been through that with Zack; Aunt Leanne will lead most of the training for the baby with some help from Uncle Adam as it gets closer to the due date. I won't be involved in any of that, but it is going to be cool to hear about, and as I've mentioned; could be a big deal for future Magi baby development if it works out – and if the council allows it to be done with other Magi baby and non-Magi mother pregnancies.

With that meeting and baseball, it was after midnight by the time our guests had left and I'd kissed Michael goodnight. I helped with getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed after our little family chat and meeting recap; and then I got ready for bed right away after that. I had my family business work done for the day, so the nightly computer checks didn't take long; and now I'm ready to call it a night. There is rain in the forecast again for Thursday, and lots of it; but if we don't dodge yet another wet weather bullet; there's still a chance that it won't get in the way of my baseball practice or our camping night. I'll keep you posted on how that goes, but we'll either be camping or doing a sleepover here rain or shine; and I want to get a bit of extra sleep now that I don't expect to get tomorrow night.

There are a few little details here and there that I'm skipping – like Violet being at Dillon's house for a sleepover tonight – but I really am just ready to nap now; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

I only have a minute to do this again this week while getting ready for our camping night because I've promised to go tech-free for the rest of the night; so I'll do that part of the update tomorrow.

We did get dumped on with a lot of rain today, but that came in the early hours of the morning, and the storm had moved on by the time we were ready to go outside for Tai Chi. The ground was still wet for that, but dried up fairly fast; and we only had a few sprinkles now and then during the rest of the day – even though it was often cloudy and looked like we'd get more rain than we did. I worked this morning after football practice; and then I played all afternoon with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and the twins – though not all of them all of the time. Rowen and I had baseball practice after dinner; Michael, Tim, and Lucas had a pretty good gang of guys with them for their football scrimmage; and we all went swimming after our practices before splitting up to either get ready for our camping night or do something else to stay entertained while the rest of us were busy.

We're going to have our usual six teens, and while Jenny was invited; she decided not to do that without a boyfriend. Emma and Kylie are here, and the twins have Naomi and Aiden with them for the night; but we don't have Patrick, Scott, Lindsay, or the Bassett cousins this time. We are going to have a little campfire before putting the younger kids to bed, and I need to get to that; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, August 8, 2014

I guess this update needs to start with the rest of the camping story from last night, but it's really late; so I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

The campfire was a blast, and while we didn't have as many campers as usual, we did have extra drop-ins for the campfire and more observers at neighbor houses catching at least some of the show. That was mostly while Michael and I were playing guitar and singing; including the three duets that Ehlana and Naomi requested from us. The neighbors wouldn't have heard the campfire stories that Rebecca and Tim told us; but there was some audience participation – like when the four younger kids ran some toasted marshmallows done to Jacob and Miranda; or when Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah all stopped in for a little visit and fun before going to hang out at Josiah's house for a couple of hours.

The campfire guests included a few of Emma's and Kylie's friends; and the music attracted a few other teen drop-ins – though most of them just stayed long enough for a little chat before moving on. Since Mom and Dad were two of the back porch audience members, and they hadn't come out to do that until after getting some work done in the office; we got to have a bit of extra time for the campfire – though we still wrapped that part of our night up by eleven-thirty. The boys put out the fire and cleaned up while the girls took care of getting our four younger kids ready for bed and tucked into their sleeping bags for the night.

Going for a swim after that was optional; and Michael and I were with Emma and Kylie for the swim while Rebecca and Lucas, and Rowen and Tim, decided to make a bit of alone time for themselves. That might have been fun, but I had some toddlers to watch – even if they were sleeping before we were finished our swim. Michael and I had a little chat with Emma and Kylie too before they turned in for the night; and then another visit with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, and Lucas after each couple got back again. It was after one before we all turned in; so I'm glad that I didn't stay up and try to do my usual nightly computing or any family business work after that. Rowen and I actually managed to get off to sleep fairly quickly; and I got a pretty good night's rest before getting up for Tai Chi in the morning.

Between Tai Chi, breakfast, football, and then cleaning up our campground; it was a really busy morning. I'm not exactly keeping this short so far, so the only thing I'll mention from that part of the morning is that the football workouts are getting more popular one or two guys at a time; and I don't expect that Rowen and I will be doing that with Michael and Tim much longer.

That has nothing to do with the fact that the boys are winning as many suicide drills against us as they're losing now. It'll just be an added bonus! ;^)

Moving along, it was yard work time for me once all of that was done and I was on my own for the rest of the morning. I mowed the lawn and spent the rest of that time weeding the gardens until Alicia came home with Ethan and Ehlana. I had lunch with them, and then I took over watching the twins for the afternoon while Alicia was helping Mom with other jobs. We biked over to the park; spent most of the afternoon there; and had Michael join us there while he was on his afternoon break. We went swimming, biking, played at the playground, and had an ice cream break at the Emporium before sending Michael back to work for the dinner shift.

He was doing that tonight because of baseball tomorrow – and because Jake and Stephanie were at the Palmers' house for a going away barbeque for Josiah and Christina. I haven't mentioned that in my blog; but they're heading out to college tomorrow. That's actually a week early for them, but they're going to stop for a couple of visits with family on the way there; and then spend the extra time off getting their books and supplies early instead of dealing with the mad rush starting the day the residential halls open. I think that's a great idea; and plan on keeping that in mind when it's my turn to go to college in four years.

Violet and Dillon were doing that dinner tonight too, and so were most of the members of Christina's home town family; so Mom and Dad only had Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace at our house for dinner and baseball night. Ethan, Ehlana, and I were okay with that because we got them all to ourselves for a couple of hours – something that hasn't happened much lately. We went with a fairly easy dinner night, so we had more time to visit and play; and then it was time to get to the park for the Beagles' baseball game.

They played against the Hair Hounds tonight, and Rowen and I had a pretty good little cheerleading squad - including Ehlana, Naomi, Leah, Hailey, and a half-dozen girls who joined in just because they thought that we were having fun and wanted to play too. All of the younger girls were very excited when our team won the game; but our cheering probably didn't really make as much of a difference as our parents assured us that it did. The Hounds weren't having a very good night; and we won eight-to-four in a fairly short, easy match.

Getting an early start to their night out after the game was something that most of the players on both teams were happy about, and while Mom and Dad got ready to go out to the pub for some play time with kids their own age; Rowen, Tim, Michael, and I rounded up all of the kids that we were babysitting tonight. We took them for a swim; and then were having an ice cream snack break with them by the time Mom and Dad were ready to leave. We followed that up with getting all of the younger kids ready for bed; we watched a Disney movie with them; and then put them to bed while Michael and Tim led some video gaming for Patrick, Scott, and Ryan while Rowen and I played some music with Jessica and Lindsay; had a nice little girl chat; and did a mini-makeover with them before they were all sent to bed too – shortly before Mom and Dad got home.

There was a parent-teen recap and a little clean-up work to do in the lounge and kitchen; and then Michael and I were in the living room for some cuddle time while Rowen and Tim stayed in the lounge. That was fun, if only moderately hot; and then it was suddenly way past our bedtime – and Michael and I headed up to our rooms on the second and third floor after hearing Tim on the back stairs going to his room once he'd finished saying goodnight to Rowen.

Some more girl chat was needed after that, and I did a short version of the rest of my nightly computing before getting to this update. Rowen and I are only going to have time for a nap now, and we have a very busy day tomorrow, so even though I'm skipping a few bits of news from the day; that's it for tonight.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

I'm going to start this update in baseball mode. The good news this weekend is that we had a two win and one loss record for the three most important games to me; while the bad news is that our Arctic Vortex team didn't get one of those wins. We lost fifteen to thirteen to the Avalanche; and are now three and two for the season with one game to go. That's left us in a probably-must-win situation for our last game because we lost two out of three of our matches against the Avalanche; and we'd likely lose a tie-breaker if we all end up with three and three records. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Michael and Tim's team, the Lightning, did win their game against the Thunder by eighteen to eleven, so they're at three and two now too; and pretty much in the same boat as we are for the race to earn a spot in the championship games. I should have mentioned last night that Mom, Dad, and their Beagles team don't have that problem – their win last night locks them up for one of the spots in their Championship game this year regardless of how they do in their last regular season game.

Our afternoon of baseball was fun – except for the losing our game part of it; but the rest of the day was pretty good too. Mom and Dad surprised us with breakfast at the Inn – and it was also a goodbye meal for Josiah and Christina too. That was apparently something that the parents decided while out last night; and we – the kids and teens – were all very okay with doing that instead of the cooking and cleaning that would have been going on if we'd had breakfast at home. Michael didn't exactly get out of doing that work because he went to help out in the kitchen after he finished eating; but it was better for the rest of us.

I was on yard chores duty after we got home again until it was time for me to get ready for my game, and then I was at the park all afternoon except for one break between games when Rowen and I went home to get changed and cleaned up a bit. It was hot out today, so we didn't have much of a cheer squad for our game; and Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana took regular breaks while at the park to cool off in the river or go for ice cream at the Emporium. They didn't stay for Michael's game; and there were even fewer spectators for either late-afternoon game at the park as the temperature hit the peak for the day.

That's why Rowen and I went for a couple of short swims during that game; and we went for a long swim after the game with Michael and Tim – once we'd also done the ice cream run to the Emporium with the rest of their teammates and coaches. Michael was done at the Inn for the day, so he stayed for dinner with me after Rowen and Tim moved on to the plans they had with their own families. We've pretty much just had a quiet evening around here since then. Dad grilled some steaks; Mom and I made up some side dishes; and we had dinner out on the back porch. Michael and I played with Ethan and Ehlana; took them for a swim; and did a Magi lesson with Mom. After doing the bedtime baths for the twins and getting them tucked in for the night, we had a music practice in my room; and then spent a couple of quality hours making out in the lounge.

Michael went home shortly after Violet and Dillon got back from hanging out with Jake and Stephanie for a couple of hours. Dillon's staying here tonight, and I'm sure that they'll be doing daily sleepovers now ahead of their return to college next weekend. Let's not think about that until we have to. I may not get to spend nearly as much time with Violet as I'd like to, but I'll still miss seeing her around all of the time while they're away at school.

Anyway, after Michael went home, I got ready for bed; and then started doing my usual nightly computing. Some family business work needed to get done, so I took care of that; and somehow managed to stay up too late again tonight. If I wrap this up now and hurry off to sleep, I'll still manage to get a bit more than a nap in before morning; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, August 10, 2014

It's rained off and on all day, but I've spent most of my time indoors anyway; so the only real impact the weather had for me was that we were inside for Tai Chi this morning. That might be a different story tomorrow if we have rain for our first day at the amusement park; but I hope it'll be nice by the time we get there – even if we do get some rain during the drive.

I spent a lot of the day working, whether that was helping out with the work in the kitchen this morning and at lunch; doing some family business work this afternoon to be ready for our trip; or helping out at the Inn during the buffets. Other than the final details for our amusement park adventure, there really isn't any news to report today; and I'll leave all of that for my updates over the next couple of days. For tonight, I really just need to wrap this up and get a solid night of down time; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, August 11, 2014

We've had an amazing, fun day; and our third annual amusement park trip has been another best-ever-so-far kind of event – so far! ;^)

Our house was departure central before dawn this morning; and we have quite a gang with us. From our family, we have Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and their kids. Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace are staying behind so we have a doctor in town and because Aunt Grace is down to weeks until her lab opens for business and needs the be there. The Stone, Draper, and Seager families are all on the trip this year too, and in addition to Dillon and Stephanie; we also have teen kid care assistance from Alicia and Erin. While Kyle's busy training with his college football team and couldn't come with Erin, Doug is spending the two days with Alicia, and Jenny spent as much time with her brother, Alicia, and Erin as she did with us today. Finally, Rebecca was given a little surprise when Claire managed to negotiate two days off for Lucas with his Dad despite how busy they are on the farm right now; so he was able to come with us too.

We played musical vehicles a bit while getting ready to leave, and Michael and I got to do the trip with Rowen and Tim while the twins were with Naomi and Aiden. It was a bit crazy, but we managed to be on the road on time; and we were at the amusement park shortly after it opened. There was a sprinkle or three of rain during the trip, so we opted to spend most of our first day here at the water park – though we hit a bunch of rides later in the day; and didn't end up getting more than a couple of spits of rain that didn't slow us down at all.

Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I have spent most of our day with Rebecca and Lucas; though we all had family play time too. We played with the older teens for an hour or so too while Alicia and Erin were getting a break from helping with toddlers and babies; and we spent nearly another hour just playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden on some slides and in the wave pool. Thrill rides might be more exciting for all of us, but I don't think that most of the boys in our group would have seriously traded girls in swimsuits and playing in the water on a hot day for the rides – and not just because we'll be doing that all day tomorrow.

This place is going to have a special place in Rowen's heart forever thanks to her first kiss with Tim here, and there were more than a few kisses being shared by couples in our group; but I don't have anything particularly hot to report from any of the junior couples tonight. Some of us are four to a room, and in our case, Rowen and I have Ehlana and Naomi with us while Michael, Tim, and Lucas have Ethan and Aiden with them. Roommate swaps are not an option for us! There aren't any actual swaps going on with the college-age teen couples; and they're paired up in rooms this year – including Doug and Alicia.

I guess there isn't any reason to do a full recap of every splish and splash today; so let's just do a quick review. We spent the couple of hours before lunch going on the water slides in various groups; cooled off in the different pools when needed; and had lunch at a pool-side cafe. We split the afternoon between more water play and the water-feature rides; and then we moved on to the main amusement park to go on some thrill rides before and after a pizza dinner. Michael and I did some family and kid rides too; but it was the thrill rides that were the coolest – and I really loved getting to do another sky coaster ride. There's just something about free-falling that makes that one of my all-time favorite rides; and it's especially awesome to do that with Michael – and Rowen and Tim; since they love that ride too.

We didn't all stay until the park closed – one or more of the parents with the youngest kids left for our hotel after dinner and also took care of getting all of us checked in. The rest of us played on and then met up with them again once we were booted out of the park with the rest of the stragglers leaving the park after trying to hit as many one-more-last-rides as we could. Rowen and I were kept busy getting our luggage to our room and taking custody of Ehlana and Naomi while the boys did the same with Ethan and Aiden. We met up with them to go to one of the hotel restaurants for a bedtime snack; and then split up for the rest of the night – though Lucas went to hang out with Rebecca, Jenny, and some of the older teens for a while first.

The twins, Naomi, and Aiden were all tired out by then, though; so we got them ready for bed and off to sleep. Michael and Rowen switched rooms for a little while so that we could have a little couples-cuddle time, but as I already mentioned; there wasn't any hot factor going on for us – our junior chaperones made sure of that! We're also all ready to get some sleep too so that we'll be ready for the second-half of our amusement park adventure – and the long drive home after we're done playing; so I'll keep the rest of this short.

Rowen and I have been chatting since she got back, and while a recap of our day was at the top of the list; there were a few girl-chat things to discuss too – like when Rowen stopped Tim and kissed him in exactly the same place where he first kissed her last year – even though we had just randomly been there in that spot at the time. Though we were away from home, we didn't escape football talk with so many boys along, and while Erin doesn't plan on trying out for the college cheerleading squad; she did let Jenny talk about the high school squad this year. You might be surprised to find out that Rowen was actually quite interested in the cheerleading talk – particularly when Erin talked about her own cheerleading career being entirely motivated by wanting to be around Kyle – even before they started dating.

I'm sure that Tim will be happy to find out that Rowen wasn't interested in Jenny's primary motivation – meeting boys.

That brings me to a bit of news that I'm tempted to skip reporting. Let me start by saying that I am sure that Jenny likes Jonathan a lot. She also has no intention of staying attached to him when they'd only see each other for a few days between now and next summer; which is why she had no problem flirting with boys today – and there were a handful of them interested in her today. She also had fun talking about the potential for finding her next boyfriend through being a cheerleader and traveling with the team – or with visiting teams for home games. If Garth was hoping for a reconciliation this year; he's going to be disappointed; since Jenny made it fairly clear that she didn't expect to be interested in any of the guys on our team this year.

I should probably amend that to Jenny not being interested in any available guy of suitable age. There are guys that she'd be willing to consider dating if they weren't already taken.

My point in including that in this report, though, is mostly to include a different perspective on teen relationships from mine. Sometimes I can't relate at all to Jenny about this, but she is practical and honest with the guys. Yes, she's already left some broken hearts in her wake, but she also hasn't met her match either, and just because her choices wouldn't work for me; she's happy and I guess that's all that really matters.

The only other teen news that I'll mention is about Rebecca and Lucas, and that's just to report that they are both really enjoying getting to spend two days together. Since they're both working a lot and don't get to hang out together nearly as much as Michael and I can; I'm really happy for them. As with other farm-town kid couples; it'll be much easier for them once we're back at school again – not that I'm trying to rush through the rest of the summer to get there.

Okay, it's time to wrap this up and get some sleep. We'll be spending the day playing on the rides, and while napping during the drive home is an option for some of us; I'm sure that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I will end up spending most of that time chatting and keeping ourselves entertained. It's supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day too; so we should be in for another amazing day. I'll let you know how that works out with my next update, but for now, I'm out of here; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

We can't possibly keep the streak going forever, but this was definitely the best-ever-so-far amusement park trip!

The weather was perfect – sunny, hot, but not scorching; and the fun was non-stop. That started with Tai Chi by the hotel pool and gardens with all of my favorite exercise buddies; a long swim in that same pool; and breakfast at a nearby restaurant once we were all ready to go for the day. We were at the amusement park right on time for the opening, and didn't have to deal with much of a line-up because we already had our two-day passes and could go straight in.

The teens were all set free for the first hour or so to hit the thrill rides that the younger kids couldn't go on. Michael, Tim, Lucas, Rebecca, Rowen, and I stayed together for that while the rest of the older teens were in two other groups. We managed to get through four of our favorite rides during that little blast of fun, and then we met up with our families for some less-thrilling but equally entertaining play time.

While I wasn't at the center of the action most of the time, I want to mention that I really loved getting to hang out with Hannah and Liz. Ethan and Ehlana are closer to both of them for obvious reasons, and they're friends of Mom's and Dad's, but I don't really get to normally spend much time with them; so it was a lot of fun playing with them – and with Eli and Hailey too. Naomi's and Aiden's younger brother and sister are each close in age to Zack and Leah, and they're already able to play together; though that's more true for the girls right now because they are between four and six months older than the boys. That sounds funny when you think that Michael's five months older than me; but it is a bigger deal at one than it is at thirteen. That does have me wondering what it would have been like for us if I had been born in Witch Falls and known Michael since we were babies. Would we have been like Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; or like Rowen and Tim?

Then again, I don't actually know what they were like around each other at that age. I should ask their parents sometime and find out. Maybe they've really just rekindled an old flame from back in their church nursery days. (I do know that they didn't do daycare together – they were taken care of at the computer store or dealership when their Moms were working.)

That rolled off on a tangent, so let's get back to the report. That first round of family play time included watching a show; going on some rides that the younger kids could do; and just one thrill ride with the parents. We went for a cool-down swim and then had lunch before some of us were set free to play again while the younger kids had some babysitter-managed quiet time watching a couple of shows and having naps. That allowed the parents to go on some cool rides too; so our group had my parents, Michael's, and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne with us for a while as we hit a few coasters together. We were on our own again after that until we needed to meet up for round two of family play time and dinner.

By the way, I wouldn't dream of knocking the food options at amusement parks, but I can report that Aunt Leanne had enough of fast food by the time we left; and Jacob did not find any new dishes to add to the menu at the Inn. Then again, it's probably also fair to suggest that if they had Jacob put on one of his buffets at the amusement park that there would be a lot more messy incidents on the thrill rides – if you know what I mean; so maybe it's just as well that the food isn't so good that people go back for seconds and thirds!

Since I think that's a cute theory, let's not mention that Tim – and a few of the other guys – actually did still manage to eat double or triple helpings at every meal. We'll just chalk that up to football training. Tim managed to find a way to tie in nearly everything we did over the past two days to football training anyway; so adding diet – or lack of one – to the list is easy enough.

Getting back on track again, our late-afternoon play time included more kiddie rides; another swim; and a show while we had a burgers, hot dogs, and fries dinner. We – the teens – were then given one more hour to hit the thrill rides before needing to meet up with everyone at the park entrance so we could load up for the ride home. The trip was long and mostly uneventful. Rowen and Tim won the draw for the back seat and best cuddle location in the minivan, so Michael and I were in the middle seats. I did try to lean over and cuddle with him for a while later in the trip, but that wasn't very comfortable; so we mostly just held hands and enjoyed the quiet chat time with Rowen, Tim, Mom, and Miranda.

Now that I think about it, Miranda flipped that coin for us. I wonder if we really did lose the toss or not? ;^)

It was going on one by the time we got home; and nearly two by the time I got up here to my room after helping to get the twins to bed; unload vehicles; and say goodnight to everyone – though we didn't quite have half of our entire group with us at our house – just those either dropping off kids or picking their own up from us. Lucas is staying overnight with the Stones, but will be up in a few hours and getting a ride out to the farm before Miranda and Jacob need to be at the Inn. That's also why neither of them were driving on the way home tonight; though I know Miranda didn't get more than a micro nap or two while with us.

Sleeping in won't really be an option for me either, since Tim insisted that football practice is on as normal – especially after missing two days. That doesn't exactly mesh with his assertions on how thrill rides and g-forces were a training substitute, but he's a guy; and logic is not required – as every girl knows.

I would have really liked to have a soak in the Jacuzzi tonight, but didn't want to keep anyone awake who is exhausted after two play days and a long drive home; so I settled for a two-minute shower before getting ready for bed and cuddling with Mandy. Tomorrow is a work day, and I do need to be up early; so I'll be wrapping this up shortly. Before I head off to dreamland, though; there are a few things I want to mention with this update.

First up, Alicia is now finished working with Mom and has a few days off to get ready to leave for college on the weekend. That will affect me because I'll need to help Mom with picking up the work slack – and some babysitting. Ethan and Ehlana may spend some extra time at KidZone starting in September too, but I'll be the go-to babysitter for the next few weeks – particularly next week while Dad's in the city. Violet and Dillon will be leaving for school this weekend too, along with a lot of the college students; but Jake and Stephanie are here for one more week – mostly because they don't need the extra time to get used to New York; and don't want to spend the extra money for hotels and restaurants.

Memo to me about that – the family financial bonuses take a hit after the freshman year; so be prepared! There are not any subsequent rounds of going away gifts each year for most collegians – at least not any that I've noticed with my favorite college students. I'm not suggesting that they're left to fend for themselves or anything, but there also aren't as many extras for sure – like an extra week's worth of travel expenses.

Violet and Dillon will be getting ready to leave now too, but they're still also both still working for another couple of days too before taking Friday off. For me, while tomorrow is a work day, we still have our weekly camping night on Thursday; a going away dinner and whatever night on Friday for Violet and Dillon; and Roger's fourteenth birthday party on Sunday – though Michael and I will be working at the Inn during his dinner party there. Dad will be playing catch up on his work too; Mom will be at the lab a lot; and I'm sure there will be a busy yard work day on Saturday too. There's a good chance that none of that will be as fun or exciting as the past two days have been, but I could use a day or two off from that much fun anyway to rest up for the rest of the summer – which really should continue to be great – especially if Michael and Tim can make the football team like they hope they will. It's hard to believe, but they'll know the answer to that in just a bit over two weeks.

Yes, I could give you a hint; but won't. ;^)

I guess that's it for now. We had an awesome adventure, and I'm so glad that we got to do that with our families – and so many of our friends. That likely won't happen all that often, so I'll take those moments when we can have them – and be grateful for my photographic memory too. Some down time is in order right now, though; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

There is one top story for me today, and while Rowen and I are keeping it a secret for now from everyone – including Michael and Tim; it'll be history for anyone reading this in the future.

We're going to try out for the football cheerleading squad!

Rowen talked to me about it this morning, and I'm sure that her interest in being a cheerleader had a lot to do with everything we heard from Erin and Jenny while we were away over the past two days. I should also mention that it was a surprise for me, and while that might surprise you; I have mentioned before that I'm not allowed to know about everything that's supposed to happen – and this was apparently one of those things. I do like the idea of being able to go to all of the football games without needing to arrange rides or inconvenience anyone in our families to do that; but Rowen also has some big-time nervousness about putting herself out in the spotlight like that – something she's rarely done before.

She has obviously been thinking about it for a while, though; and is totally serious about going for it. We talked about it this morning while the boys were at their football training session at the park. We went along, and had been ready to help out, but they had a good turnout of guys; so we sat in the bleachers and watched the action instead. We eventually had some company, but not right at first; and that gave us time to put our heads together and talk after Rowen hit me with that little bombshell of a suggestion. I told her that I hadn't really thought about being a cheerleader at all, and that's mostly because I'm still used to thinking about always keeping a low profile even when it isn't really necessary anymore when Gawain knows exactly where we are. That doesn't mean that I was against the idea, but I can assure you that I wouldn't have done this on my own. Rowen really wants to do this, even though it's scary for her too; and I'm going to be there all the way for my best friend.

We spent some time off and on today talking about it and making our secret plans; but we'll start our own training in earnest tomorrow. There's a week and a half to go until the cheerleading tryouts begin a week from Monday; and Rowen wants a crash course in dance, gymnastics, and cheerleading. That might sound impossible to some of you reading this, but we do have some advantages that make that easy enough for us – and not just through using our Magi talents. Rowen and I are the top two girl athletes in our grade, for one thing, so while Rowen might not know a lot about dance, and we only learn basic gymnastics at our school; she is in great shape. My photographic memory will come in handy because I know all of the cheers from last season and can teach them to Rowen. That's where the Magi talent will come in handy, though; since I can also teach all of that to her in a way that'll be almost identical to her own memories – and as if she's always known how to do those things. All that we'll need to do on top of that is practice and get our bodies in sync with what we do – or soon will – know.

Going off-topic for a moment; you might be wondering why I don't just do that for teaching other things. That's an easy one to answer – it'd be a lot of work for everything; and overwhelming to the recipient. With this we're talking about a few dozen cheer routines, some dance and gymnastics lessons, and a handful of memories related to the topic that Rowen will find helpful. I could force-feed other kinds of information to people, but that doesn't mean it would make sense to them – or that they could even process volumes of data let alone retain those memories long-term. Most of the time, it's way better for someone to learn at their own pace and capabilities; though I'll also add that Rowen's own abilities are extraordinary, so this is well-within her capabilities.

I'll keep you posted on how that goes for us, but before we move on; I also want to mention that this choice is going to put us into some teen drama. When tryouts start, I will add more to that, and I haven't mentioned it to Rowen yet; but there are other girls in our class planning on trying out for the squad too. Though we might be a surprise to everyone else, I have a lot of confidence in our chances of success for making the squad; which will end up putting us in the doghouse with some or all of those girls.

Okay, you're smart enough to guess at the two most-likely to be peeved at us for this; but I'll still wait for that part of this new adventure to unfold before going there.

I'm ready to get on with the rest of the update now, so let's leave cheerleading and move on. It's been another beautiful day, and getting back to Tai Chi by the river was great – even though we were all a bit tired. With Alicia being done her summer job now, I helped out more with the morning chores before and after breakfast, and then headed for the park with Rowen, Michael, and Tim while Mom, Violet, and Dillon took Ethan and Ehlana with them to the lab for the morning. I worked on the family business after football and kept up with some loads of laundry until lunchtime while Rowen and Tim were busy and Michael was home mowing the lawn before going to the Inn to help out with the lunch rush.

Mom brought Ethan and Ehlana home for lunch while Violet and Dillon were doing their own thing; and then I took custody of the twins for the afternoon. We biked, played, swan, and had Michael with us too while he was on his afternoon break. It was an easy-dinner night; I took care of the usual group of kids while the parents were at their ball practice; and then I spent a little time with Michael at his house before going home for the night in time to do the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana. We were all pretty much exhausted by then, so we didn't get back to Magi lessons, and Mom and Dad only did the work that couldn't wait until tomorrow before going to bed too.

I came up to my room right after tucking the twins in for the night, but needed to spend some quality time with my Jacuzzi before getting ready for some cuddle time with Mandy and a decent night of rest. By the time I climbed into bed, I had the rest of my nightly computing finished – along with some bonus family business work; so once I'm finished with this update, I can get started on that down time.

Our camping night is on for tomorrow, and it's going to be at Michael's house this week; so getting the extra sleep will come in handy – especially if we have another late night. Before I go there, though; I should add a few more micro news items. While I was busy at the park with my evening babysitting, Violet was starting to pack for her return to college. I'd still like to stay in denial about that; but that's getting tougher to do now that we're practically down to counting hours before she and Dillon leave on Saturday.

There were some email from around the family tonight too, ranging from the latest summer vacation news from Dawn and Jillian to most recent updates about the Labor Day weekend plans. We're going to have all of our family here for that because they were all away for the Fourth of July this year; but Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah won't have as many members of their family joining in for the fun. I'm looking forward to having everyone here for the visit; but have no idea how I'll have much time to spend with anyone – especially now that Rowen and I might have both football and baseball games to deal with that weekend on Friday and Saturday and the buffets at the Inn on Monday. Sunday might be the only day we'll have to spend with our families – and even that will be after we spend the morning doing the Sunday service with the teen praise team.

Okay, I'm getting exhausted just thinking about all of that, so it's time to wrap this up and head off to dreamland for the night. Maybe my subconscious will take a look at the potential Michael and me fun that might go along with being a high school football star and his cheerleader girlfriend!

That might be too much information for the male half of the Magi reading this in the future; but who says that those kinds of fantasies have to be just for guys? Isn't it refreshing to know that Magi Masters have a mostly-normal life when it comes to things like that? Of course we do have the ability to actually make some normally-impossible fantasies come true; but that's another story for another report! ;^)

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

For the second day in a row, I'll start with cheerleading as the top story; though our camping adventure at Michael's has been the most fun.

Rowen and I started our cheerleader training this morning while the boys were at the park with their football-playing buddies. We did that in the exercise room after everyone else was gone for the morning; starting with a little Magi-powered memory and data transfer using a full-sensory telepathic and empathic link. We then went on to practice some of the cheers that the squad did last season; and then wrapped up in time to meet up with the boys and go for a swim before Michael, Rowen, and Tim all needed to move on to other jobs or chores.

I spent a second morning in a row doing chores and some family business work at home; had lunch with Mom, Violet, Dillon, and the twins; and then spent the afternoon with Ethan and Ehlana again too. That wasn't much different from yesterday either; except that we spent some time at Michael's house during his break setting up tents for our camping adventure. Ethan, Ehlana, and I were home for dinner; hauled our overnight bags and camping gear to Michael's on our way to my baseball practice; and Jessica Bassett and Lindsay Faulkner helped out with kid control while I was playing with my friends – and the boys were having their football scrimmage.

Our baseball practice went fairly well, and we're motivated because we really do need our last regular-season game win. The boys had a fairly strenuous scrimmage, so we were all ready for a swim by the time we were done at the park. Since we had a pretty large group of kids around us by then, we did that swim back at Michael's place; and found out that our camping adventure had grown a bit while we were busy. We knew that we had our usual full group this afternoon when we set up the tents, but Jessica and Lindsay wanted to invite Geraldine Sheldon; her older brother, Jimmy, was then included too, and since their mothers had been hanging out together at the time of the invite; Jeremy, Madison, and Seth Green were all invited too. Jeremy is a friend and classmate of Ryan's, and Seth will be a classmate with Ethan and Ehlana, so that worked out for them. Madison was added so that she wouldn't be left out of the fun; though we don't have any other five-year olds with us. She didn't mind; and is having a blast bunking with Rebecca and Sophia tonight.

As mentioned, we started our camping adventure with a cool-down swim; played in the back yard for a while; and then started our campfire after Jacob and Miranda got home. They joined us for the start of that, and Jake, Stephanie, Violet, and Dillon stopped in for a visit too – though they then moved on to hang out with some friends so that they could get one last visit together before most of them headed off to college on the weekend. Jacob and Michael handled the guitar playing for us, and while Michael and I did sing some harmonies for the campfire songs; we did not do any duets tonight. Jake, Rebecca, and Tim took turns with the mildly-scary but kid-rated campfire stories; and Rowen and I were mostly the senior snack coordinators. Sounds important, but really just meant that we put the marshmallows on the sticks for the younger kids and made sure that they didn't accidentally stab anyone with them – the sticks or flaming marshmallows.

By the way – maybe we should do a long-term study to find out if the kids that prefer charcoal-black marshmallows or barely-toasted ones grow up to like similarly-cooked meats as adults. If that has you wondering about my tastes, I'm definitely right in the middle – I don't like burned at all; but also don't want my food raw enough to moo, oink, or cluck either. That might not sound cool as hyphenated selections at a restaurant, but medium is an option that I'm not afraid to request.

Moving along, the campfire was the most fun of the day, but as usual; we also kept to a time limit. Rebecca, Lucas, Michael, and I took care of getting the younger kids ready for bed at eleven while Rowen and Tim supervised the older kids around the campfire for another half-hour. The campfire was doused at eleven-thirty – at the same time we had all of the five-and-unders tucked into sleeping bags. One more swim was an option for everyone else; and Michael and I were in on that – and supervised the swim while Rebecca and Lucas and Rowen and Tim took breaks and went to find places where they could have some alone time without brothers, sisters, or younger kids around.

Though he's in the middle between Michael and Tim, and Patrick and Scott, Jimmy mostly hung out with the two younger boys. That was likely because he felt a bit weird about Michael and Tim always being with Rowen and me, and that's fine; but I do want to mention that Emma and Kylie both seemed to be quite happy to have Jimmy there – even though he wasn't looking at them the same way they were looking at him. They'll all be going into Grade Seven together this year, but he's one of the youngest in their class, and even if he has crossed over already; Jimmy's also one of the smaller boys their age too. That is a big deal for guys during that stage when they're significantly shorter than the girls; so Emma and her friends should not be surprised if it's another year or two before Jimmy gets interested in the dating game at all.

Then again, I might have said the same thing about Michael a couple of years ago – and would've been wrong. ;^)

After our swim, most of us got ready for bed and took turns using the washrooms; but then we sat out around the tents and talked for quite a while – or goofed around; since Ryan and Jeremy spent some quality time trying to impress the older boys – and were egged on in their efforts to do that by a few of those older guys. As seems to be the norm, Michael and I stayed up until all of the younger kids were in their tents for the night. Rebecca and Lucas made it back to the campground a good twenty minutes before Rowen and Tim did; and we all called it a night at a bit after one. Rowen and I have been chatting since then while I did my nightly computing; but she's dozing off now and I'm ready to call it a night too. Michael and I will be up early for Tai Chi with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; and then the boys will be off to their football workout while Rebecca, Rowen, and I handle kid control – and probably the start of camp tear-down.

While we don't have any major plans this weekend, it is going to be busy with the going away dinner and whatever night for Violet and Dillon tomorrow; their leaving on Saturday; and a busy buffet shift on Sunday at the Inn – not to mention that Dad will be getting ready for his week in the city and have lots of work to do with that too. I hope we'll still manage to have some fun here and there with all of the work, and some alone time with Michael would be nice too; but we'll see how it goes. For right now, though, I'm just ready for some quality napping; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, August 15, 2014

This has been a fairly amazing day; though the fun came in bursts while there was also a lot of work to do too.

For me, the fun came first with Tai Chi by the river with Michael and our four toddler exercise buddies at dawn. Michael, Tim, and Lucas went on to do their football training at the park with their buddies after that while Rebecca, Rowen, and I stayed at the campground and dealt with kid control – along with some camp cleaning and tear-down work. We knew about a seriously awesome breakfast surprise by then; so we were motivated to be ready to head over to the Inn once the guys were finished their practice for a special buffet that was offered to all customers.

That was especially awesome because we had most of our families along for the meal – including the Nortons. I don't know how Claire talked Karl into do that with all of the work on the farm; but he came along too and really made Lucas' day. Actually, let me correct myself – I do know how Claire does that; but it's a girl-thing secret that I can't divulge to the men reading this journal even if that won't happen until sometime in the future. I'm sure they'll understand – or won't. If you're confused – good. That's exactly the state girls like to keep you! ;^)

While breakfast was both delicious and entertaining, it was also short; and then everyone either headed off to work or other activities. I had some help back at Michael's house with the rest of the camp teardown, but most of the younger kids had been returned to their parents by then; Michael and Rebecca stayed at the Inn to help out there; and I headed home once the work at Michael's house was finished. They're calling for rain this weekend, so I decided to shoot for getting all of my yard work done today. I mowed the lawn in the morning; had lunch with Mom and the twins; and then did the rest of my usual chores this afternoon while Mom was back at the lab and Ethan and Ehlana were at KidZone for a few hours. Michael came over during his break and helped out a bit while keeping me company. We had a break and went for a swim too; but he was back to the Inn for the dinner shift – and once again that was so that Jake and Stephanie could spend time with Violet and Dillon tonight.

We got a bit of rain around four o'clock, and again after seven; but we also managed to dodge the raindrops long enough to cook and eat dinner before moving indoors for what actually ended up being a dinner and a movie night. There haven't been many of those this summer; so it was nice to do that – even though I was on kid control a lot and that included having all of the younger guests upstairs in the lounge while the parents and teens watched a movie in the living room.

All of our usual dinner and a movie guests were there, but we also had Dillon's family and some other guests – at least for dinner. Isabelle and Andrew had to split their time between our house and his because the Jennings family was having a going away party for their college teens too; and there were other people dropping in for cameo appearances before and after dinner. There was a lot of food at our little pot-luck meal for a few dozen; and I ate way too much – though that came in handy while keeping up with a bunch of very busy kids. In addition to video games in the lounge and other random games like tag and hide-and-seek; I took them for a swim with some teen and parent support; and we followed that up with some back yard play after dark that went on until the first group of parents were ready to head home with their little angels after the first movie in the living room.

Michael was there by then, and he stayed to help keep the remaining kids entertained until eventually it was just the two of us – and my parents, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Violet, Dillon, and his parents left standing. We had a nice little visit and bedtime snack; and then I walked Michael home to say goodnight to him while everyone else was either getting ready to go home too or do the extra goodbyes before heading up to bed. That move didn't end up making any difference for Michael and me since Aunt Leanne was happy to send a few whistles; offers of advice; and a judging critique of our goodnight kiss that I'm sure entertained everyone within range of her voice.

Hopefully that wasn't half the people in town; but it sure seemed loud from where we were standing at the time. I won't tell you that it totally killed the mood, though, since her teasing really just egged me on to try my very best to make sure that getting razzed by anyone about it later would be worth it for both Michael and me. I'm fairly sure I succeeded; though I'm solely basing that on the grin Michael had on his face when I left him on the front porch.

Dillon's here tonight, and then he and Violet are doing breakfast with his family – which is probably why she stopped in for a girl chat on her way to bed a little while ago. I guess staying in denial about having my summertime big sister leaving for school is out of the question now; but it doesn't actually feel as sad as it did last year. Violet's both excited about getting back to school and wishing that she wouldn't be spending most of the next nine months in a dorm room instead of with Dillon. I'll take a wild guess that they'll be getting their own place next year once that's an option for them. I know for sure that's the plan next year for Jake and Stephanie; though I'm not sure how easy that'll be to work out for them in New York. That's one place where dorms might actually be cheaper than most other housing options.

At least we do get to have Jake and Stephanie here for another week before they leave; though I might not get to spend much time with them outside of the Inn – unless we get time to do some things together next Monday and Tuesday. It's getting late, though that's mostly because I got caught up in some family business work that I kept working on until I had it finished; and past-time for me to wrap this up and get some sleep. Other than seeing Violet and Dillon off sometime tomorrow morning, I don't really have any specific plans for the day. If we can, Rowen and I might get together for a cheerleading practice; but we won't do that if we can't get any privacy here – or at her place. We still have over a week to go to get ready for tryouts, though, so I'm not really worried about it if we don't get a chance to do that this weekend. Rowen's biggest issue won't have anything to do with learning cheers, dances, or gymnastic moves – it'll be getting out there in front of people and being the center of attention. Yes that would be as part of a squad, but don't forget that she has amazing red hair that will attract a lot of attention – as if being really hot wouldn't do that anyway.

Yeah, I know we're only thirteen, and there actually still are guys around here who can't see her that way – as a hottie. Then again, she doesn't necessarily see that in herself – at least not the same way I do – or Tim does. I'd add Michael's opinion to that list, but having my boyfriend agree that my best friend is hot would just be weird – even if it's true.

My mind is definitely wandering off in strange directions now, and that seems to be a sure sign that I'm overdue for some sleep; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, August 16, 2014

I've ended up having a strangely quiet day even though it feels as though I've been on the go most of the time too.

We started the morning out with Tai Chi by the river; had breakfast after Violet and Dillon left to go and have that meal at his house; and then I mostly helped Mom out with the housework and laundry while Dad dodged the occasional splash of rain here and there to do his usual Saturday morning chores outside. There was a break in that action when Violet and Dillon came back; loaded her things into the car; and then hit the road for college – a break that was a blast of activity and too short. It was probably a good thing that we didn't drag out the goodbye hugs and kisses; and getting back to the chores helped to keep us busy during that first few hours when the house felt a bit emptier.

While I'm thinking about Violet, I haven't really mentioned her ongoing Magi training this summer in my journal, but Mom has been working with her; and you can read about how that's going in Mom's training journals if you're interested. I haven't really done very much Magi stuff with Violet lately, but since you could say that about nearly everything this summer; that isn't really surprising. I'm sure she has more fun doing those kinds of things with Dillon or Stephanie anyway – just as I do with Rowen or Michael.

That's a nice lead-in to the next part of my update – the post-lunch cheerleading practice that Rowen and I did at her house once she was finished helping out at the computer store. We didn't have a lot of time to work on that, but we managed to get through a few routines – and start putting one new one together. A little birdie might have let us know that coming up with our own routines might be part of the cheerleading tryouts this year; but she didn't – and doesn't – know that we'd be interested in joining the squad. We still have some work to do on that routine; but it's going to be cool when we have it ready.

Rowen had plans for the rest of the day with Tim, so I went home again after we were finished having fun and then took Ethan and Ehlana out for a ride and park play time. Michael joined us for most of that once he was set free for the day from the Inn; and we had a blast mostly just goofing around with the twins for the rest of the day while Mom and Dad mostly worked in the office. There were still a few sprinkles of rain for a while, but that really just helped to cool us off a little; and when that wasn't enough, we went for swims a few times and one Emporium ice cream run that included picking up treats for Mom and Dad.

We had an easy dinner night with burgers hot dogs and salads with just the six of us; followed that up with some family play time; and the we went for one last swim before Michael and I took Ethan and Ehlana up to the lounge to watch a movie after getting them ready for bed. Mom and Dad went back to work in the office them; though that was mostly because Dad was hoping to get enough work done that he'd have time to spend with Ethan and Ehlana tomorrow afternoon instead of getting stuck working all day again. They came up to get Ethan and Ehlana at nearly the same time the movie ended; said goodnight to Michael and me; and then they all went to bed early.

I won't write anything about why my parents might have wanted to go to bed early; but only because I don't really want to think about what they were up to while I was having fun making out with my boyfriend once we were alone. That's way too weird even for a Magi Master teen; so maybe we'll just skip the make-out session part of my report tonight too.

We did have fun, though – Michael and me; not... well, I'm sure Mom and Dad had fun too... I'll just shut-up now. ;^)

Michael went home at midnight; I got ready for bed; and Mandy and I have been cuddling together while I've been doing my usual nightly computing and some family business work. Violet and Dillon got to school safely; I had an email from Dawn and Jillian with an update on their summer and news that they were hoping to meet up with us for the annual back-to-school shopping trip; and Rowen checked in for a bedtime text-chat that mostly included comparing notes on how hot our respective boyfriend alone time was tonight.

Would you like to guess the answer to that?

Here's a hint – it's the quiet ones you have to worry about.

Now you just have to figure out whether I meant that to be about Michael or Rowen; since everyone knows that Tim and I are definitely not quiet.

Okay, it's obviously time for me to get some sleep now, and there isn't anything else to report anyway; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Roger!

He's had fun today, and while Michael and I were busy helping out at the Inn during his early buffet birthday dinner there; we did stop in for some of the birthday play time at his house while Michael was on his break. There wasn't a major party because Roger had picked having the dinner as the big event for his special day; so we were basically just hanging out together and playing some games in the back yard. The main news that I have to report from the party is that there really wasn't any news.

Compared to a year ago when Roger's party was the first big event for us after Nora's very noisy break-up with Tim – and his first kiss with Rowen; this was very uneventful. That doesn't mean that all teen drama has ended for our classmates and friends, but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I aren't currently involved in any of that right now.

That'll change in another week and a day or two; so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Since I don't really have anything else to add about Roger's party, and Michael and I mostly just worked our tails off during the buffet rushes; let's move on to the only other news of my day – even though I wasn't really involved in it at all. Mom and Aunt Leanne have been coordinating the back-to-school shopping trip for over a month now, and while I haven't written anything about that in my journals, the trip is tomorrow; so it's past-time to add a few comments.

First up is the news that this is going to be a very big shopping event. The final number of shoppers is one hundred and forty-seven! Even if you include everyone in the area; we're talking about nearly ten percent of the people in town and the Ridge River district. It is going to be noticeably quieter around here tomorrow! One good news item for the parents is that Mom and Aunt Leanne managed to coax forty-three adults into going on the trip. Yes, there are one hundred and three kids and teens going too, but the teens can mostly take care of themselves; so there won't be any adults with more than two kids to keep up with while we're shopping. Mom also got confirmation that Melissa and Lily will be bringing Dawn and Jillian to Crystal Springs too; so it'll be great to see them too – even if we won't get much time to hang out together when we'll be part of such a big shopping group.

That's going to be a blast, and I want to get some extra sleep tonight so that I'll be ready for the trip; which is why I came straight home after staying with Michael, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca to close the Inn after sending their parents home early. Jake insisted on doing that because it's the last chance they'll have to do that before he and Stephanie head back to school next Saturday. They, by the way, are not going on the trip tomorrow – they're staying to help out at the Inn and will be taking next Thursday and Friday off instead to get ready to leave. Stephanie plans to do her back-to-school shopping in New York instead of hauling a bunch of luggage with her on the flight.

Miranda, Rebecca, and Michael are going on the trip tomorrow, and Michael and I be travelling with his Mom, Aunt Sylvia; and Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia – though we won't be shopping with them all day. We'll do most of that with Rowen and Tim – though I plan on helping Mom with Ethan and Ehlana for at least a couple of hours too so that she'll have time to play dress-up with her friends too.

I can write about all of that tomorrow, and really do need to get to bed early for a change if I want to be at full-power by morning; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Happy 18th Birthday, Alicia!

Our babysitter is at her new college today, and I didn't talk to her at all; but I hope she's had a good day.

We definitely have while on our shopping trip!

There wasn't time for Tai Chi this morning, and Michael was at the Inn anyway to help out with the set up for the breakfast buffet. Mom and I were up early with the twins to see Dad off to the city; we followed that up with our usual nap together; and then we got ready to go over to the Inn for seven. Nearly every shopper came for breakfast too, and Miranda and Jacob had a full house and then some in the dining room with the addition of some family members joining in for the meal even though they weren't going to the city with us. I had breakfast with Michael, Rowen, Tim, Sally, and Joshua while Mom and Aunt Leanne took care of Ethan and Ehlana and had breakfast with Uncle Adam and Zack.

While Rowen, Sally, and I were happy to talk shopping while we ate, Tim had the boys in football mode. He didn't exactly complain about missing a football training day to go shopping with us; but he did promise Michael that their workout tomorrow would be tougher – even a double practice if he could keep the other guys interested long enough. You'd think he was going to be team captain this year instead of a freshman hopeful. I don't really want to get into a big football discussion when shopping was the name of the game today, but that actually is one thing that's very different from last year.

Kyle was the driving force behind the football team's all-summer training; and he basically bullied the other guys into working out with him. That isn't happening with any of the seniors this season; so Tim is really the only guy trying to get the guys interested in extra training – and that's mostly with the Grande Nine and Ten hopefuls; a few guys who are only going into Grade Eight; and a couple of guys in Grade Eleven. I'll guess that lack of interest by the seniors is a combination of resting on their championship laurels and the unspoken belief that they won't have a chance this season without Kyle. That's really too bad that they feel that way, but then again if you look at the stats from last season; Kyle did have a big enough impact that not having his per-game points should mean the difference between winning and losing – if they don't have other players pick up the slack this year.

We really should move along, though, and get to the real fun – the shopping! Mom and Aunt Leanne coordinated the departure of our convoy of shoppers in groups of three and four vehicles. Michael and I were with his Mother, Aunt Sylvia, Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia. I'll skip over the rest of the travel arrangements, but if you're really that bored to want to know those details; feel free to check out the final shopping trip list – it's here somewhere in the archives. On the trip to the city, I was in the back seat with Jessica and Sophia while Michael kept Ryan entertained in the middle seats – so that Ryan didn't have to sit with his sisters. I'd say that was a guy thing, but the girls weren't all that interested in sitting with Ryan either. Michael and I wouldn't have had any cuddle time even if we had sat together, so it wasn't a big deal; and I had fun with Jessica and Sophia.

Once we got to the mall, there was a bit of a delay before we got started on our shopping adventure while Mom and Aunt Leanne made sure that all kids were accounted for and we met up with our different shopping groups. Michael and I were only paired with Rowen and Tim for the day; though we spent lots of time with Mom, Aunt Leanne, and their bigger group too. We also met up with Dawn, Jillian, and their mothers; though while they shopped with 'our' group too, I only ended up getting spend a couple of hours with them – at lunch; and for an hour when Rowen and I did some girls-only shopping.

There is one bad thing about back-to-school shopping, but the inevitable, impending end to our summer holiday didn't really affect us today. One of the shopping highlights from today for Rowen and me was getting to play dress-up with our boyfriends. There might eventually be hope for Tim, but his sense of fashion right now is fairly awful. There's no doubt that his Mommy has picked out his clothes for him – or at least anything that looks good on him; and she was fairly amused today anytime she was nearby and watching Rowen and I trying to keep him from back-to-school fashion disaster. Michael has a different problem when it comes to shopping for clothes – peer pressure from Tim. That was a much easier problem to deal with – I just had Rowen distract Tim whenever necessary so that Michael could just pick out what he wanted without getting razzed by his best friend for being so boring. Since Rowen and Tim both had fun during those distractions; that worked out for all of us.

The blush of the day award has to go to Rowen. That happened right before we went to do that girls-only shopping with Dawn, Jillian, and a few other girls. We went with the usual excuse of needing to shop for underwear, and instead of just agreeing to go and do their own thing while we were busy; Tim instead offered to help Rowen out with picking out that part of her wardrobe too. He definitely isn't shy; but might want to think about making public offers like that one – particularly when there are friends of your mother near enough to hear the offer.

Actually, Patricia and Tracey might laugh about it; but I doubt that Owen would find it funny at all.

I can't cover everything that happened today, so let's just do a quick overview. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I started out our shopping with the bigger group so that Rowen and I could talk with Dawn and Jillian for a few minutes, but then we mostly did our own thing for an hour or so. We met up again after that and shopped together until our lunch break. The girl-time shopping was after lunch, and also allowed Rowen and I to take care of some birthday gift shopping for our boyfriends too; and then Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I took Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden with us for the last hour and a half at the Mall so that Mom and Aunt Leanne could have some shopping fun with their own friends. We went on to Wal-Mart after that – and after saying goodbye to Aunt Melissa, Lily, Dawn, and Jillian; since they didn't need to go along with us for the supply shopping part of our adventure.

We had a bunch of younger kids to keep up with while we were at Wal-Mart, and Rowen and I took the girls with us while Michael and Tim kept the boys entertained in the electronics, sporting goods, and toy departments. Rowen and I did a bit more gift shopping while we were there too; since we probably won't be back to Crystal Springs for at least a couple of months. While there'd been some talk about having dinner in the city with Dad, he was too busy; and we decided to just get fast food and head back home in time to catch the tail-end of the sales going on at the stores back home.

Even with so many shoppers in the city today, Abby assured us that she still had a great sales day – and nearly every woman and girl in town stopped in to check out the bargains that were as good as anything she'll have for the holiday weekend without the extra crowds to deal with from visiting family and end-of-summer vacationers. I only bought one dress that I thought would be perfect for the Sunday service in the park for the holiday weekend; and then I was ready to go home. I know, that's shocking; but I guess all of the late nights have caught up with me again.

Getting home took a while, since Michael and I helped his Aunt Sylvia with getting the kids and their purchases into their house; moved on to his place; we had a chat with Miranda, Jacob, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca; and then I went home for the night in time to help Mom with the work there. We unloaded the minivan; put our things away; did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; and then it was Jacuzzi time for both of us once the twins were tucked in. I multi-tasked most of my bedtime computing while in the tub; had a long computer chat with Rowen after getting into bed with Mandy; and now I'm ready for some quality down time. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow – though maybe not shopping day in the city kind of fun.

Rowen and I will be doing more cheerleading training while the boys are busy with football; I'm going to help Michael with his weekly yard work after that; and he and I have our teen praise team practice after dinner. If we get the yard work done early enough, there might be time for some biking in the afternoon; but we'll see how that goes – or whether I'll need to watch Ethan and Ehlana instead.

Before I wrap this up, though; I wanted to make a few comments about shopping news that I wasn't directly involved in; but heard about from Rebecca and others. Rebecca did most of her shopping with Jenny and some other friends, and it sounds as though there were more than a few risqué fashion decisions being made today – at least when it comes to fashion in our conservative little town. From what Rebecca told us, the guys may find that very interesting, and while I'm all for making personal choices; I'll never be interested in too-revealing clothing. It's one thing to wear a swimsuit and not be embarrassed to do that while going swimming; but I wouldn't wear one all day around school – just as I won't wear clothes that are practically that revealing.

There were also some flirting stories; a teen drama or three that mostly involve impending break-ups as part of some back-to-school plans; and one minor fight between two of Rebecca and Jenny's classmates that was over a boy the two girls were both interested in. I'll skip all of the details for those news flashes too; and only mention it to note that the teen drama in Witch Falls is alive and well – even though there isn't much of that with the Grade Nine class right now.

Maybe we're all just too focused on surviving the first weeks as high school freshmen, though as I've mentioned already; I'm quite sure that Rowen and I will be in for some teen drama of our own by early next week. That isn't something I'm getting through using my Magi Sight, and maybe that won't happen; but the odds are against that – and we did hear about the other girls who are planning on trying out for the cheerleading squad next week. We know this because there just might be some sucking up going on with Jenny and the other cheerleaders who plan on returning to the squad this year.

Did I write that last part out loud? Okay, maybe I shouldn't report on that either; but that kind of thing does happen – even at our little school. I don't want to elaborate, though, and do want to head off to sleep now; so let's just call it a night.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

I was back to full-power again this morning after a good night of rest, but before I get to the daily report; let's do a travel update for Grandma and Grandpa that I'm overdue for writing about here.

They'll be home again a week from today, and are on the last leg of their trip in Malaysia now before starting to make their way back home this weekend. You can read about their trip details in their own travel journals, but I will note that they had a really productive two weeks in South Korea; and not quite so much success in Malaysia so far. There is so much that we hope to do in Asia, but as with everywhere these days; our biggest problems with both our businesses and charities are government-related. It's been way too nice a day to get into that kind of rant tonight, though; so I'm not going to go there. It'll be nice to have Grandma and Grandpa home in time for the holiday weekend; and they'll be staying home until after Zack's first birthday – and the fall festival.

While my grandparents are working and playing in Malaysia, we've had a busy but mostly uneventful day here at home. For me, busy started with Tai Chi by the river; I helped Mom with breakfast for four after Michael went home to have breakfast there before going on to the park for football; and then Rowen came over for our cheerleading training while the boys were busy. We did that in the exercise room after helping Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana ready to go and seeing them off to the lab for the day. I might not have chosen to try out for cheerleading on my own, but I have to say that Rowen and I are having a lot of fun – and I'll modestly say that we're pretty good too. Okay, we do have some advantages while training in secret – like being able to talk telepathically, but that only helps us now; and we will have to play normal teens during tryouts.

If you're currently imagining what Magi-powered cheerleaders could do, that's okay; because Rowen and I have had some play time experimenting with that. Too bad we can't do things like that in public; since the aerials would be very cool to watch! ;^)

We didn't do too much of that, and mostly concentrated on learning the routines from last year and working on the new routines we know we'll need as part of the tryouts. It's down to days now before tryouts start next Monday; but I'm sure that we'll be ready. Rowen feels pretty good about it right now too; and her biggest worry is about what we'd do if we make the cheerleading squad and Michael and Tim don't get on the team this season. That would totally suck, and so would having any other combination of one, two, or three of us make the squad or team; but I'm not going to worry about that at all. That isn't due to any Sight foreknowledge or anything – I just think that Rowen and I are good enough, and Michael and Tim are the best athletes in our Grade, so if any Niners are going to make the team this season; they'll be on that list. That isn't a given because the coaches and Principal Jacobs are very serious about player safety; and there have been seasons when no freshman are allowed to play.

No, I don't think that'll happen this year; but we'll see how it goes.

While Rowen and I had fun with our little workout, and had some bonus play time when we went for a cool-down swim with Michael and Tim after they were finished their training; it was time to get to work after that for all of us. Rowen and Tim left to get on to their own chores, and I helped Michael with his yard work. We mowed the lawn with two lawn tractors; helped Miranda and Rebecca with the gardening; and had a subs and salads lunch once the work was finished by one o'clock.

We were set free after that, and met up with Rowen and Tim to go biking at the park for the afternoon. That play time started with a construction site tour, and there's been a lot going on that we haven't really kept up with lately. There's still some finishing work going on at the lab, but none of that is visible from outside – except for the trucks and extra worker vehicles in the parking lots. The new medical center building site is a hive of activity as the framing work nears completion; and there is a small batch of houses in the new section of town that will be ready for move-ins next week. Other housing projects will continue into the fall; but the big project there will be the second apartment building that will bookend the roads of the new section of town with the first apartment building. Construction on that starts in September, with the same building plan – to have the shell up by winter so that the construction guys can work indoors until spring.

It was an awesome, hot afternoon for biking, and though we didn't have time for a long ride this week; we had a blast hitting the trails at the park. I wish that we had more time this summer for going on another big ride or three; but that isn't going to happen – especially since we'll all be busy next week with football and cheerleading. While I'm thinking about football, I should have noted that we didn't do our usual Tuesday football practice at the Norton farm today. Michael and Tim would have liked to do that, but missing the Monday chores day at Michael's house meant that we couldn't take the extra time to bike out there and back without working most of the afternoon; and Lucas was busy anyway. Our camping night on Thursday is still on, though; and this week, it will be at Tim's house – as part of his birthday party.

Anyway, we biked; went for a couple of swims in the river; and had an ice cream run to the Emporium during the three hours or so we had available to hang out together. Michael and I needed to be at his house for dinner by five-thirty – or more specifically, to help out with some of the work. Dinner was shortly after six because Jacob and Miranda were also hosting Stephanie's parents and combining dinner with a little pre-departure meeting for their favorite collegians. Michael and I weren't there for that because we were at our teen praise team practice instead. We'd missed the last one while away on our amusement park adventure, so we had a bit of catching up to do for the music we'll be performing at the service on the holiday weekend.

We'll put in an extra practice or two on our own to catch up, but we also weren't really all that far behind either because most of the other teens wait until the last week or so to really get ready for the services – or at least that's been my observation so far since we were invited to join. That might be different during the school year. Our practice went until nearly eight-thirty tonight, and then we moved on to my house to help Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana through bath time and eventually into bed. Mom also did a Magi lesson with the four of us; we had a chat with Dad while tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night; and then Michael and I came up to the lounge for some overdue alone time while Mom went to do some work in the office.

As usual, I won't go into the details and risk turning my journal into a voyeur's literary paradise, but Michael and I had fun while not watching a movie; clothing was optional; and Magi-powered play might have been involved. Use your imagination – we did! ;^)

Tomorrow is a work day, so Michael went home shortly before midnight; I hopped into my Jacuzzi for a long soak after he left; and started working on my usual nightly computing and some family business work that I decided not to leave until morning. The only reason I opted for the bath time is because Mom hopped into her tub too after finishing up her work in the office when Michael went home; but I also didn't want to stay up too late tonight – which is why it's only coming up on twelve-thirty now as I'm writing this. Using a little time-phasing to do that still tires me out as much as if I'd stayed up until three or four; but I'll make up for that tomorrow night so I'll still be ready for Tim's birthday party and campout on Thursday.

I guess that's all I have for tonight. It's hard to believe that we're now less than two weeks away from going back to school, but after tomorrow; we've got so much on the go between now and then that I'll barely have time to even think about that. Actually, I don't want to think about any of that right now at all – or anything else except some happy dreaming with Michael in a starring role; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

It's been another gorgeous, hot summer day; and I spent a lot of it indoors and working.

Try not to be too shocked – my life isn't all fun and games! ;^)

Okay, the Tai Chi with Michael; cheerleading practice with Rowen; a bit of afternoon play and swim time with Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana; and more park fun during the coed baseball practice was all very entertaining; but I spent the rest of the time working. That included family business work for most of the morning and afternoon when I wasn't playing; helping Mom with the meals and clean-ups; and taking care of getting Ethan and Ehlana bathed and ready for bed after our evening playground action.

Michael didn't come over tonight after work because we both want to get some sleep tonight and be ready for Tim's party and campout. That's also why I came up to my room and got ready for bed as soon as Mom and I had Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night. I had my family business work done for the day, so I've only needed to do my usual nightly computing. That didn't take long because there just isn't much going on today on the family and friends email network. I can't say the same for world news of all kinds, but there are other places in the archives to go to learn about my current events in what will be your history, dear future reader; and I really don't want to go there tonight anyway. There's just too much going on right now; and all of it is beyond my ability to influence.

That, by the way, won't always be the case; but I won't go there tonight either. Right now, I really just want to call it a night and get some sleep; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Tim!

There's a good chance that this is right up at the top of the list for Tim's best-ever-so-far birthday; with at least part of the reason for that being due to a tent-mate mix-up that probably won't be corrected for at least a few more hours.

Yes, that does mean that there's a boy in my tent as I write this; but let's back up to the beginning of the day and start our update there.

Our morning started out fairly normally with Tai Chi, breakfast, and football or cheerleading training. Michael and Tim had extra guys at their workout, but I don't think that had anything to do with his birthday – just that more guys are starting to think about football with training camp starting on Monday. From what they told us later, at least a few of those guys are going to wish they'd started getting ready sooner this summer. Tim is definitely feeling pretty good about his chances – and Michael's – for making the team now; though they haven't played much against the best returning players so far this summer. At least they'll know one way or the other soon – and Tim's really excited about that too.

I wonder how he'll react when he sees his girlfriend at the cheerleader tryouts on Monday? That's going to be fun!

Michael, Rowen, and Tim all had the day off for Tim's birthday; so we were able to hang out together for the rest of the day after the boys were finished their football practice. We went for a cool-down swim first; and then we decided to haul the extra tents over to Tim's house and set them up so we had that work out of the way before going for a bike ride around town and at the park. We also picked up food and treats at the grocery store and bakery so we could do a picnic at the park for lunch; and more swimming was mixed in with the picnic and biking while we were there. We went back to Tim's house in time for three of us to help Tracey and her other volunteers with getting everything ready for the birthday party and dinner.

While we did that, Tim was put in charge of welcoming the rest of his guests – including the other teens that are here for the camping adventure. There were more tents set up then, and while that included all of our classmates; there were also some older football buddies and their girlfriends. Tim doesn't have a huge back yard, so by comparison to camping at my house, Michael's, or Rowen's; it seems a bit crowded tonight. I'm getting ahead of the story again, though, so let's back up to the pre-dinner fun.

It's Tim's party, so you can guess that tossing a football around was a given while we hung out and kept ourselves entertained for the hour and a half or so we had until dinner was ready. It was hot out, so most of the girls were content to relax and chat while the boys ran around; and there was apparently a lot to talk about. That ranged from shopping recaps and back-to-school news to the latest gossip and even football and sports news. Carolyn Landry is here both as Tim's cousin and a girlfriend of a football player, and though her big news of the day isn't official; she's very proud that her big brother will be named as a freshman starter for his college football team soon. That's not a surprise to any of us here in Witch Falls; but I'm sure it is for a lot of the other players on his team.

I liked getting to spend some time with Carolyn – we haven't seen each other much this summer; and it'll be another year before we'll be on the same baseball team again. She's also getting ready for her own high school sports endeavors this year, and since she wants to make her own mark on college sports when it's her turn to go to college; she's at least as fired up about it as Tim is about football. While the gossip side of the girl chat included some teen drama; there wasn't really any drama going on at the party to speak of today. Once again, that's a big switch from last year, when Tim was at the center of the teen drama for our grade – and Nora and Vanessa wouldn't even come to his party.

I guess it's a good thing that his party isn't next week; or that probably wouldn't be the case. Vanessa and Nora made it quite clear tonight that they'll be at the cheerleader tryouts on Monday; and spent most of their time hanging out with the few returning cheerleaders that were at Tim's party with their boyfriends – or stag, in Jenny's case. Jenny wasn't actually invited to the party; though she did get an invite to camp with Rebecca tonight. Tim didn't mind when she came along with Rebecca and Lucas for dinner too; and I doubt that his parents even noticed one more than expected. Martin and his helpers just kept grilling until the boys stopped eating.

It's a good thing that they're having a good summer on the farm equipment repair side of the business this year!

Then again, Sarah's probably said that every year since Kyle was about three. I wonder how much the college loses on food expenses per football player? Probably nothing worth mentioning compared to the NCAA revenues from the games.

Martin left work early to do the grilling for Tim's party, and while Rowen and I had expected to miss our baseball practice tonight; we ended up getting to do that anyway – and it was Tim's choice. We'd had dinner and done the birthday gifts, song, and cake thing by twenty-to-seven. Tim had still wanted to do the weekly Thursday night football scrimmage at the park, so while the boys did that; Rebecca, Jenny, Rowen, and I went to our baseball practice. Martin and Tracey got a few teen clean-up volunteers, but everyone else either went with us to the park to watch football or baseball; or go for a swim and just hang out at the park while Tim was busy.

Our baseball practice was done before the guys had finished their scrimmage, but even Tim lost interest in football at about the same time that most of the girls went for a swim. Girlfriends in bikinis seem to have that effect on teenage boys – who knew?

We swam until it was nearly dark; headed back to Tim's house; and started our campfire pretty much as soon as we were there. Michael and I were on music duty and took turns playing guitar. Some of our friends danced along to the music; but we mostly all just sat around the fire and toasted snacks while chatting and sharing scary stories when we weren't playing or singing music. Since it was a weeknight, we were given a firm fire curfew of midnight, and while we stuck to that and were even a few minutes early with getting the flames doused; that was hardly the end of the fun for us.

A group of us went back to the park for a midnight swim; couples went for moonlit walks; and sitting out around the tents and having fun was an option too. That brings us up to the actual camping part of our night, and how I ended up with Michael in my tent instead of Rowen. I'm certainly not complaining, and this isn't meant to put blame on anyone else if we get caught; but it was definitely my shy friend's choice to have an extended cuddle time with her boyfriend in his tent for his birthday. We'll also skip all details about other tent-mate mix-ups that are happening right now; since that had nothing to do with our decisions.

What I will say is that I hope that Rowen and Tim have had as much fun as Michael and I have had. That is why I'm writing this so late – we definitely took full advantage of the opportunity our best friends gave us. That did still require being very quiet with some many campers in tents close to us; but that was really just made it a bit hotter for us – not to mention strange and sometimes funny. The strange and funny was more due to things we could hear from other teens who weren't as careful or quiet; but let's not go there either. I'm also not going to name any other names either – you either know who you are if you're reading this; and don't need to know about anyone else's teen fun in this particular area.

Yeah, I know that I don't always skip over those kinds of things; but would you really rather have me write about teen romance in graphic detail all of the time?

Don't respond – I might not want to know the answer to that question!

While Michael and I have finished playing now, I'm writing this while he's taking a turn in the bathroom; and we'll be moving on to some quality cuddle time once he gets back here. I want to be ready for that, so it's time to wrap this up and get on with the rest of my night. I'll let you know tomorrow whether we get in trouble for coed tenting or not; though I will assure you that if we do get into trouble that it has totally been worth it! ;^)

On that note, and the sound of approaching footsteps; I'm out of here. Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, August 22, 2014

The top news story around town today was the new house move-ins for the Carter and Byrd families – though they'll be moving in over the weekend. While that is mostly a big deal for their families; it also gets attention from a lot of other people because they have their new homes on two more of the riverfront properties in the new section of town. As I've mentioned before, I'm including the news in my journal because their daughters are the same age as Ethan and Ehlana; and will be classmates and friends; so the twins are particularly excited for Caroline and Jennifer – even though they don't actually spend a lot of time together right now except for on Sundays and the occasional common day at KidZone.

My day wasn't move in to a new house kind of awesome, but we did have one of those really good days – starting with Tai Chi for two with Michael in Tim's back yard. I should amend that to state that we were the only two teens exercising while we also had more than a few spectators watching us. Oh, and since you're probably wondering; no, I didn't wake up this morning with Michael in my tent. We swapped tent mates about forty minutes or so after I finished writing my last journal update. Rowen made that choice too; though it apparently had taken her a while to convince Tim to agree since she was going to return to our tent as soon as she saw the light of my computer go out.

If I'd known that was what she was waiting for, I might have been tempted to leave it on! ;^)

Seriously, though, that was fun, and while we didn't get much sleep; I was still fired up this morning when it was time to get going again. Tai Chi with some new observers was entertaining, and so was breakfast – even if it was easy foods like pop tarts, bakery treats, and fruit. Having that many football players and teen guys was even scarier at breakfast than dinner; but Michael and I were among the first to eat so we got to sit back and watch the show without worrying about whether there would be any food left by the time we got to the table. If you're thinking that I'm joking; I'm not. Tracey didn't have to worry about leftovers by the time Tim led the charge of guys over to the park for their football training.

Rowen and I stayed to help Tracey because Martin was at work by then. We helped with the breakfast clean-up, and had about half of the tents down and packed up by the time the guys returned to help finish the job. Some of the other girls and guys stayed to help us; but that work also meant that Rowen and I had to wait until later for our secret cheerleading practice. That still worked out okay because Michael and Tim both went off to work at the Inn and shop respectively; Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana were at the lab by then; and Rowen and I had the house to ourselves for our practice. She needed to go to the computer store after that to work too, so after we had what will likely be our last workout before the tryouts start on Monday; I decided to mow the lawn early again this week.

Life feels like it's about to kick into overdrive as I write this tonight; but my afternoon was actually fairly quiet and fun. I had the lawn mowed by the time Mom got home with the twins for a late lunch; and then I took custody of them for the afternoon so that she could do some running around town for groceries, supplies, and the usual weekly shopping chores. We went for a bike ride that included a slow spin over to the new section of town; played at the park; and went for two long swims. Michael joined us for about half of that fun while on his afternoon break; and we also had a ten minute play intermission when we bumped into Jake and Stephanie and Ethan and Ehlana wanted to make sure they said goodbye to them in case they don't get to see them tomorrow morning before they leave for the airport.

That's what I was doing tonight after meeting up with Michael after the Inn closed – spending some time with Jake and Stephanie. While Michael and I were busy with Tim's party and work yesterday and today; Jake and Stephanie have been getting ready to leave and spending time with their family and friends. Since Michael and I were away last night, they were with Stephanie's family; and they're at Michael's house overnight tonight. There wasn't much happening for me between the afternoon play time and going over to Michael's house because we weren't doing a dinner and movie night at our house this week. Everyone was either busy or away, so I just did a quiet, easy dinner with Mom and the twins and we had a quiet evening at home until Dad got home from the city.

I was there to help with unloading his truck and we spent a bit of time together, but he was tired out; and I'm sure that he and Mom went to bed at the same time Ethan and Ehlana did – and not long after I left for the rest of the evening. Jacob and Miranda weren't throwing a going away party or anything – we just sat around in the living room and talked for a couple of hours. The impending separation is easier for all of us this time; so we had more fun and fewer tears. Jake and Stephanie also had some advice for the high school freshmen in the room that was fairly entertaining; along with Jake razzing Michael a fair bit. That was all entertaining too; and it seemed to be way too soon when it was time for me to go home and everyone else to go to bed to get some rest ahead of a busy work or travel weekend.

While some Jacuzzi time would have been nice, I didn't want to wake anyone; so I just cleaned up a bit and got ready for bed after getting home again. I had some family business to deal with along with quite a bit of email to go through; so I've been plugging away at my computer for a couple of hours now. Getting some extra sleep would have been nice, but I won't have time for much computer work tomorrow; and Saturday will be the start of the on-stop action that I'm feeling the anticipation of tonight.

We have three ballgames; Mom and Dad will be at the end-of-season party at Sheldon's after their game; and we're hosting the camping adventure for the kids and teens. Mom still doesn't have the final numbers for that; but she's prepared for the biggest camping event of the summer. The one big change for me this year is that they won't have the usual babysitters in charge – or at least not quite the same way. There are going to be paid teens supervising; but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I are part of that group. I'll add more details tomorrow.

Bottom line, though, is that it's going to be a busy day; and then I'm going to help out at the Inn all day on Sunday because Miranda and Jacob will be short-handed after Jake and Stephanie leave. Then it'll be non-stop action all week next week with football, cheerleading, work, and getting ready for the holiday weekend. Thinking about all of that has me wondering why I'm not sleeping right now; so I'm going to just wrap this up and call it a night.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Where should I begin? This has been an amazing, crazy, and busy day!

This update is coming to you live from Camp Proctor in the wee hours of the morning; and it feels as though it's the first time I've stopped running all day. That isn't actually true, since I did sit down now and then to eat and while watching baseball games this afternoon and evening; but even then I was on the go with cheerleading or babysitting duties.

Since I'm there anyway, let's do the baseball news. We had three wins today; so we'll also be having a busy holiday weekend with three championship matches to go along with everything else we'll be doing. We – the Arctic Vortex – played the Blizzard, and while the game was close for a while; we won fourteen to ten, and didn't need to play the last half of the final inning. Our win also put the Blizzard out of the championships, so we'll be playing the Avalanche next Saturday. They won our regular season series two games to one, but we had the better regular season record; and will be the home team for the championship match.

The Lightning and the Beagles will have home team advantage for their big games too; but the one big difference for them is that they'll be playing rematches against the Storm and the Beer Buddies respectively. Michael, Tim, and the Lightning were the away team today against the Storm, and while Rowen and I had fun cheering for them; their game wasn't really all that close. To be honest, I think that the Storm players took it easy and coasted for the last half of the game after they fell behind big and early. It was really hot again today, and while going into the championship weekend on a loss isn't great; they're a better team than they were on the field today. I hope that the guys on Michael's and Tim's team remember that and don't get too over-confident.

The evening game of our triple-header had Mom, Dad, and the rest of the Beagles up against the Beer Buddies. They were the away team too, and while their game was closer for the first half of the game; that didn't show up in the final score after our Beagles had big scoring innings in the fifth and sixth. I know from the post-party recap that Mom and Dad shared with us after getting home that the Buddies' players were all talking big about avenging the loss next weekend, but to be honest; I'm not sure that they have the firepower to back that up this season – and we'll have Hannah playing on our team and serious about having the championship award on the wall of the Olde Bakery instead of at the pub. Hannah may be a pixie compared to Mr. Sheldon; but I wouldn't pick him over her in a fair fight! ;^)

Now that we have the sporting news out of the way for the day; let's back up to the morning part of the report. That'll need to start with the news that Jake and Stephanie got off to the airport on time; and they are safely in New York now too. They went out for breakfast at the Inn with Stephanie's parents, Rebecca, Michael, and three out of four sets of grandparents; loaded up their luggage; did a round of goodbyes that included Ethan, Ehlana, Michael, and me; and hit the road with Grandma and Grandpa Wingborough. They had one minor travel delay along the way; but weren't too late getting to New York; and had time for dinner and play time after checking into their hotel. It would be nice if they were here for our camping adventure; but they're probably more comfortable where they are – and glad to be alone before starting another year of dorm life.

My day started with Tai Chi; Mom and Dad went with an easy-meal breakfast while Michael was at the Inn for the going away breakfast. Other than the intermission to say goodbye to Jake and Stephanie; I spent the rest of the morning working around the yard and setting up tents by the river. That was non-stop, rushed work because I needed to stop early to get ready for my noon ballgame; and then I was off for an afternoon of baseball, sun, and fun at the park. We've already covered the game results, but there were a few other things going on too – like swims in the river to cool off and a couple of ice cream runs to the Emporium. Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana were there for all of my game; but my aunts, uncles, and cousins either skipped the game or only came for part of it due to hot, cranky kids – or hot, cranky, expectant Moms. ;^)

Ethan and Ehlana weren't really given the option to stay and watch Michael and Tim play their game, and while getting them out of the heat was part of the reason; Mom and Dad really needed to be home to help coordinate incoming camping gear and tent set-ups while also getting ready for the barbeque dinner they were also hosting for most of the Beagles' players and their families. Rowen and I did stay for the entire game; but we took three short breaks for swimming or ice cream too – and we headed home as soon as we'd finished congratulating our boyfriends for their win.

Michael helped out at the Inn at lunch, and again after his game; so he missed out on dinner and the first half of both my game and Mom and Dad's. On the work side of things for me, I didn't actually end up doing much cooking or cleaning because I was on kid-control with Rowen and some other teens from the time I got home from Michael's game – and have been ever since then. While the parents and some of the older teens had dinner at tables near the house; Rowen and I were with the gang of kids eating their food on the dock or by the river and tents – like we're supposed to do when camping.

Being officially on the babysitter side of the equation tonight didn't really feel any different, and while we were in charge of the kids; Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had a blast playing with Ethan, Ehlana, and our friends. I had a major squad of cheerleaders for the game tonight; though we needed to take some breaks to cool off with treats or swims. It's really nice out tonight, and perfect for camping and sleeping outdoors – not that any teens here are sleeping yet.

While I didn't have any kitchen-related work to do, that doesn't mean it was all fun and games. Feeding a bunch of toddlers can get messy for all involved; and just keeping up with potty breaks can be a full-time job if you have enough kids that age around. We didn't have all of the teen and kid campers at the barbeque; but we had all of them and extras for the campfire after the game. I won't list everyone or even attempt to cover all of the action going on here while the adults were playing with their friends at the pub or elsewhere; but it has been non-stop action and fun.

That started with a swim in the river when we first got back while Mom and Dad were getting ready to go out. The river actually felt a bit crowded with that many kids and teens playing in it – even with being able to spread out over several hundred feet. Of course, that's mostly because the dock is the best place to get in and out of the river, and we kept the younger kids close to it while they played and splashed around; but a handful of teens floated downriver too and hopped out again at one of the other docks before walking back.

We waited until Mom and Dad were ready to leave before rounding up the junior campers and starting the campfire. There had been older teen help for getting everything from blankets and chairs to snacks and drinks ready for that; so we pretty much just needed to sit down and get started with the songs, scary stories, and toasting marshmallows and hotdogs in the fire. As usual, Michael and I were at the center of the music side of the entertainment; while other teens took on the campfire stories whenever we took breaks from playing and singing. Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, and Lucas were sitting in chairs with us, and between the six of us; we also took care of Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and about half of the six or seven-and-under kids. The rest of the 'official' babysitters split up the rest of the kids and maintained overall crowd control with the teens too.

The younger kids started dropping off to sleep by eleven or so, and we tucked them into their tents when that happened; but waited until a quarter to twelve to mandate bedtime for the rest of the pre-school kids. Since we needed to keep the music going too, Michael and I took turns getting the kids to bed; and we basically did nothing but music or bedtime duties until after one o'clock when we had every camper that wasn't a tween or teen in their tents for the night – mostly. There were hold-outs and pranksters sneaking out of tents after that, but those boys didn't really stand a chance against masters like Tim and some of the other teens. They all had fun, though; so even the goofiness has helped to make this one of those really great adventures.

Michael and I stayed by the tents once we were finished getting our last group of kids into their sleeping bags, and while there was still some music at the campfire; that was provided by iPod or phone while the teens still there mostly chatted or told more extreme scary stories. Other teens, conveniently in couples, were off doing other things – canoe rides; walks; swims; or hiding out in tents.

Okay, that last group of couples were making out in tents, not hiding out; but Michael and I weren't doing that – unfortunately.

Instead of having any play time, we were kept busy making sure that the junior pranksters didn't get too far out of hand or wake the younger kids; and we also handled any emergency potty runs or other sleepy kid requests. We also had some cameo chats with some friends; and I got to be the 'bad babysitter' when it was time to have the campfire put out – even though I waited to do that until I sensed Mom and Dad on the move toward home. You'd have thought that I'd sent all of the teens to their rooms or something by the reaction; though most of that was just goofing around too – especially the complaints coming from friends like Jenny and Tim.

Michael and I had a quiet recap chat with Mom and Dad after they got back, but they were tired out; and kept that short and sweet before going up to bed. We probably should have climbed into our sleeping bags then too, but didn't. A group of us instead went for another swim; and then we sat on the dock or benches and talked for another hour or so until I got called away on another bathroom run emergency. It was after three before Rowen and I finally zipped ourselves into our tent with Ehlana and Naomi after saying goodnight to our boys and friends. I've been doing my computer checks since then; mostly to get the news from Stephanie, Violet, and my other favorite collegians.

With a huge gang to feed and only a couple of hours to go until dawn; it's way past time for me to get started on my nap time; but I'm still a bit wired for sound too. This really has been one of those really great days, and just as I was anticipating having life speed up for us last night; I'm feeling revved up now – as if I could just keep going twenty-four hours a day indefinitely.

Unfortunately, that isn't true even for a Magi Master, though; so I really do need to get some sleep while I can. It's going to be a crazy morning feeding this gang, getting ready for church, and breaking down our campsite; but I'll let you know how all of that goes with my next update. For now, I don't really have any other news; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The top personal news story of the day is that this update is coming to you on Monday morning instead of Sunday night because I fell asleep on the sofa with Michael at his house – and we didn't wake up again until just before dawn!

That's right, Michael and I spent the night together, and while I loved falling asleep and waking up in his arms; we also don't remember anything else about the night – including having Miranda find us there in the living room and put a blanket over us instead of waking us up and sending me home.

Oh, and she apparently kissed us goodnight; took pictures; and send copies and a 'your daughter is safe' message to Mom and Dad.

Have I mentioned lately just how much I love Jacob and Miranda – and my own parents too? The bonus hugs, teasing, and fun this morning was all so awesome!

All o that should be part of my Monday update, though; and I need to move this along because I'm writing it while getting ready to meet up with Rowen and go over to the school for cheerleading tryouts.

Sunday morning started way too early, and Michael and I had our bonus sleepover at least in part due to that lack of downtime on Saturday night. Mom and Dad skipped Tai Chi, but Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden were all awake by dawn and at full power; so Michael and I led them through the latest forms that Naomi and Aiden are learning. Then we were on the go non-stop until we got to church. We helped with breakfast; getting kids ready for church; packing up tents; and anything else that Mom, Dad, and their gang of parent helpers needed. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were also group leaders for walking with the kids to the church and getting some of them re-united with their parents before the service started. I was ready for another nap by then, but that wasn't an option; and I managed to stay awake through both the first half of the service and Sunday school.

After that, it was off to the Inn to help out with the lunch crowd. I wasn't missing anything at home because Dad was playing catch-up on his work all day anyway; but the work still seemed a bit tougher around the Inn without Jake and Stephanie there. Well, it actually was harder work because Miranda and Jacob had to rely on new hires to take over from their experienced college teens; and the learning curve can be steep.

By the way, if you're thinking that isn't true for servers, line cooks, and dishwashers; I'm guessing that you've never worked at the Inn or pub to know what you're talking about. I'm sure there are lots of high-powered bankers and executives that wouldn't last an hour in the kitchen of a busy restaurant without quitting or getting fired. You don't need a PhD to do the jobs at the Inn – even though I unofficially have a couple of them – but it is hard, honest work that does take some skill and physical endurance to do well.

I don't really have time to get side-tracked right now; so let's move this along. We worked our butts off all day, and while Rebecca, Jenny, and I could take most of our breaks together, Michael was often too busy with the dishwashing and bussing jobs when we had breaks in the prep line work; so we only got to take our dinner break together. All of our breaks were short too, and we mostly just took time to jump in the river and cool off; grab some food and drinks; and then get back to the work. It wasn't as hot out today as the past few days; but it was still hot. I won't be complaining about spending that beautiful summer weather in a hot kitchen because we've had such an awesome summer already; but there were definitely some teens at the Inn wishing they were playing instead of working.

The dining room at the Inn never really cleared out at all today – there were late lunch diners and early-birds for the first buffet. Adding that to dealing with the 'new kids' and some older teens learning new jobs and took over from Jake, Stephanie, and the other collegians had the rest of us working as fast as we could – and also explains why Michael and I were so exhausted by the time we helped to close the Inn before going home with his parents and Rebecca. We had drinks and a snack in the living room while winding down after getting home, and I was supposed to just have a little alone time with Michael for a cuddle and goodnight kiss after everyone else went up to bed; so I honestly didn't expect to just have both of us fall asleep.

We didn't really even get around to the goodnight kisses part of that plan. We stretched out on the sofa for the cuddling; I closed my eyes for a minute; and that was it. I fell asleep first for sure, or I'd be able to remember hearing Michael doze off first, but if he remembers and knows that; he isn't admitting it to anyone today – or at least not in front of our parents, Rebecca, Ethan, or Ehlana.

The good morning wake-up kisses more than made up for the kisses we missed out on last night; which just has me thinking that we'll need to fall asleep together again sometime soon – just not so often that we get into trouble for it!

Anyway, since I was unconscious after that, there isn't any more news to report from yesterday, and as I mentioned already; I'll cover the rest of the news from this morning with my next update – which should be awesome if everything with football and cheerleading goes as well as we hope today.

Wish me luck; and until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Depending on your perspective, this has been one of those remember-forever kind of days, and since this is my journal; I can assure you that I've mostly been very grateful for my photographic memory today!

I'm sure you aren't surprised to read that the awesomeness of my day started with waking up still cuddling with Michael at his house. We may only be thirteen – almost fourteen in his case – but I could very easily get used to that. Yes, we'll have to wait a few years before that might be a regular option, but I'm definitely going to keep Michael; so I'm okay with practicing now and then for that amazing future together! ;^)

The unplanned sleepover did mean that we needed to rush around a bit to have time for Tai Chi at my house; breakfast at his; and then get ready for football and cheerleader tryouts. Michael still didn't know that Rowen and I were doing that; so it was fun springing that surprise on the boys when Rowen and I got to the school. Before I get to that, though; I also want to again mention how much fun it was getting teased by some of our favorite people this morning; and Rowen had fun with that too after hearing the news while we finished getting ready for the tryouts at her house before heading over to the school. Aunt Leanne had fun with that this afternoon too; but I'll get to that part of the update in a bit.

I was in a very fired up mood this morning, and thanks to the bonus sleepover with Michael; I was also at full power. That can be a scary combination – though not to me. There were some other girls who weren't at all excited to see me in hyper-mode when all of the girls trying out for the cheerleading squad met up at the school. If you've been reading all of my journals, then you know that Vanessa and Nora were two of those girls, and as we'd expected; Rowen and I were deep into the teen drama almost immediately.

There wasn't any drama involved in it, but our first stop at the school was at the football field to wish our boys good luck with hugs and kisses that got them totally razzed by the senior footballers – though that was also before word got around that we were at the cheerleader tryouts too and hadn't just made a special trip to check up on our boyfriends. Our visit might have earned Michael and Tim more of the wrong kind of attention than they wanted, but I saw that Coach Robinson took notice of them too; and that was a good thing for them.

We'll get to the football report soon, but let's do the cheerleading tryouts news first. Vanessa and Nora led the teen drama part of our morning and made it obvious to Rowen and me that they were not happy to find out that we were surprise competition for them. Let's say that they were annoyed to start with because it wasn't until later that they were forced to stop underestimating Rowen and realize that she might have a genuine shot at making the squad. I don't think they were underestimating me; but they were likely hoping that I wouldn't accept a spot on the squad if Rowen didn't make it too.

They're actually right about that part; but it still amazes me that Rowen's bookworm reputation from childhood still gets her overlooked despite the fact that she's one of the best athletes our age and definitely hot enough to be a cheerleader. I'm not going to compare her to Vanessa or Nora, but I will note that the head-start they had on us in the development department isn't an issue anymore.

Let's try not to get bogged down on the drama from today, because Rowen and I had an absolute blast at the tryouts. Dani Draper and Linda Reynolds are the senior returning cheerleaders, and while Dani let us know that she's the Head Cheerleader; Linda worked with her as a co-leader and friend. Tryouts are open to all high school girls, and there was some new competition for spots on the team from grade nine, ten, and eleven students; but nobody tried to compete against Dani and Linda. That's probably an unspoken tradition or something; but then it isn't usual for other returning cheerleaders to get replaced either – unless it's for reasons that keep the girl from being able to physically do the routines anymore. The competition for the freshman spots is always the toughest, which is one of the reasons why Vanessa and Nora are mad at Rowen and me now. They thought they were in for sure because they were comparing their chances to the known freshman competition.

By the way, this might not seem all that fair, but our squads do go with just eight girls, and two from each year – or at least that's what I've been told has been done for a long time now. I'm sure there are years when the freshman picks aren't as good as older girls, but in a small school like ours; that's how they deal with making sure that they don't end up with a talent vacuum every so many years if they have too many graduates from the squad at one time. They also have to consider other school activities, and it's already tough enough trying to field complete teams in all of the different sports and other extra-curricular activities. At least we have Carolyn Landry for the girls' sports for another couple of years – she plays on just about every team we have – and would do more if we had enough girls to compete in every sport.

I don't know yet whether I'll try out for any teams or not. Let's see whether this cheerleading thing works out first and go from there. My biggest problem would be ending up with too much on the go – as if I'm not there already!

Dani didn't waste any time getting the workout started; and Rowen and I were partnered for the stretching and warm-up exercises. That was easy enough, but then the cardio exercises and running laps on the track quickly gave Rowen and me the chance to show that we were ahead of the curve for our physical conditioning. We were first and second on the run – and it wasn't really all that close to the next group.

Oh, by the way, that was when we got to really appreciate Michael's and Tim's reactions to finding out that we were trying out for the cheerleaders – though they managed to do that without getting into trouble with Coach Robinson. Some of the guys did earn some extra push-ups because they spent too much time watching us – all of the girls – while we were running our laps; but Dani kept us away from the football field the rest of the time to avoid distractions for both the guys and the girls.

We had a short break after our run, and then it was time to start learning a few routines and eventually practicing them as one big squad. I haven't mentioned Jenny yet, but she was in 'our' break-out group for learning the routines along with her squad partner, Tammy Morris. We also had Dani lead our group while Linda worked with the other group that included Vanessa and Nora. I knew that Jenny had been spending some time getting ready for tryouts with Tammy and some of the other girls, and they did great today; but so did Rowen and I – and we definitely impressed Dani and Linda. Since we really don't have very much time to do that and earn spots on the team; that was a good start for us.

I don't want to bash the competition, but can also honestly say that wasn't the case for most of the rest of the 'new' hopefuls – including Vanessa and Nora. While I didn't offer this advice and they wouldn't have listened if I had; there were two main reasons for that failure to impress. The first is that you can't do your best if you're angry – and things went downhill for Vanessa and Nora the angrier they got with Rowen and me. The second problem is that Dani wants her squad to be a team – without stars. Showing off doesn't really work when that also puts you out of sync with the other cheerleaders – no matter how high the kicks or impressive the jump or flip.

Okay, Rowen and I did some of that too, but it was during part of the workout when Dani wanted all of us to show off some tricks – not while we worked on routines where she was looking for precision and uniformity. I love doing flips and other gymnastics tricks as much as the next girl – even when we can't do that with some Magi-powered assistance.

Now that would've impressed the other girls! ;^)

You could say that because of the way Rowen and I were able to train for the tryouts that we had an unfair advantage, but while I'll concede that we do have advantages; I don't see them as any more unfair than any other natural talents and abilities that we have compared to the other girls – or that they have different from each other and us. Then there's also the fact that I know we aren't the only Magi trying out for the squad, and whether they used those extra abilities for this or not doesn't change the fact that it was an option for them too.

I'll guess that you're wondering how they did today; and yes, they were among the best too. Correlation isn't causation, though; and I can assure you that there are Magi here in town that do not have significant athletic talent to go along with their Magi abilities. No, I won't put any names to that comment, since there is a chance that you, dear reader of the future, could be one of those Magi I'm referring to and not know it. ;^)

Moving along, we were finished for the day by lunchtime; though Dani gave us the homework assignment of bringing our own, original routines – and the music to go with it – to our practice tomorrow morning. That's easy for Rowen and me because we have that done already. I'm sure that all of the returning cheerleaders do as well; but at least some of the other girls hadn't heard about that bit of news for this year; and a few of them seemed to be in panic mode when we left for the day.

Rowen and I wandered over to the football field before going home, and while we tried not to mess things up too much for the boys; we did stay and watch until they took their lunch break and then had a short visit and shared some bonus hugs and kisses before they went to have lunch with the other guys and we went back to my house to have lunch with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana. I didn't get the full football report until later, but let's get that out of the way now before doing the afternoon recap.

Football is the sport for the high school boys here, so it isn't surprising that a big percentage of them try out for the team. That would, you'd think, make it easy to fill the team, but as I've mentioned before; safety comes first so nobody plays if they're not able to compete. That's the main reason why there aren't very many freshman players in any year; and it isn't even that unusual for boys to end up waiting until Grade Eleven before being ready to play.

In a way, that might be the biggest obstacle for Michael and Tim – the intentional bias against freshmen whether meant to be for their own good or not. The good news is that they both impressed Coach Robinson today – and most of the senior players too. They didn't do that in everything, but where they did do well; they really shone brightly. They were the fastest runners with only a couple of others close to them – Caleb Palmer and Lucas Norton. They were also the best receivers – which is where they really impressed senior quarterback Jeff Morris. On the downside, they were middle of the pack at best for tackle drills and other strength-related tests; but that isn't surprising when they're compared to much bigger, stronger guys. While that wasn't in their favor; they did do very well avoiding and out-running tackles. They didn't exactly ace defensive tackling either; but made up for that by being really good at breaking up passing plays – something that we had worked on all summer specifically for that size-difference reason.

Doing that might sound simple, but isn't when you're upwards of six or eight inches shorter than the other guys. Michael and Tim make up for that with speed and better vertical jumping and timing. Tim even managed an interception today, and while that didn't remind anyone of Kyle's brute force takeaways; Tim is faster than Kyle once he does get his hands on the ball.

Most of those details come from Michael, but I doubt there's much bias. If anything; he'll have understated his own accomplishments even if he doesn't do the same for Tim. I know that he gave it everything he had today; which is why he was in need of a little tender, loving Magi Healing tonight that I was happy to help him out with. We'll need to be careful with that because it'll get a lot of attention if he's looking too healthy compared to the other guys; but I'm also not going to leave him sore and in pain when I don't have to do that – any more than I would have left Rowen with that broken wrist last month. I wish that I could help Tim too, but since that isn't an option; he'll just have to deal with the aches and pains the old-fashioned way.

Well, technically, it's the Magi Healing that's the old way compared to most 'modern' medicine; but you know what I mean. That does give me an idea for helping Tim, though. There are homeopathic treatments that I could recommend for him that would work pretty well for aches and strains; and that wouldn't seem too strange to anyone when they all know that Mom's taught me Tai Chi. I'll talk to him about that tomorrow if he's interested.

We're just up to lunchtime in the update so far, though, so let's get back to the news of the day. Rowen and I took care of most of the entertainment while we ate our meal with Mom and the twins; and then Rowen went to do some work at home for her mother while I was drafted to help out at Grandma and Grandpa's house and Ethan and Ehlana were dropped off at KidZone while Mom, Aunt Leanne, and I worked on getting the house aired out and ready for my grandparents. They'll be home tomorrow afternoon sometime; and are back in the U.S. now as I write this with just one flight left to go in the morning. They spent most of the day on the west coast today instead of continuing on after their big hop from Asia; and I'm glad that they took the extra time instead of wearing themselves out. Along with a grocery and bakery run, that took most of the afternoon; and Aunt Leanne had fun teasing me about my sleepover with Michael.

I went home to get cleaned up after we finished that round of work, and then went over to Michael's house for dinner. He was home by then after finishing football practice, but was grabbing a shower; so I sat in the kitchen with Miranda and Rebecca while Jacob finished cooking; and mostly just talked about what they'd been doing all day. Michael and I both did our football and cheerleading tryouts reports during dinner; and then I stayed to help with the clean-up while Michael went to his baseball practice. He wasn't very motivated to do that after a long day on the football field; and I doubt that his play on the diamond was nearly as good as usual because I didn't get to do the healing thing until shortly before I went home tonight.

After Rebecca and I finished cleaning the kitchen, I popped over to Rowen's house so that we could do one quick run-through of our original routines and practice the other routines we'd been taught today; and then we met up with Michael and Tim at the ball diamond and went for a swim at Michael's house once they were finished their practice. We had a little chat time after that, but then Rowen took Tim home to his house because he'd had enough fun for the day; and Michael and I went up to his room to do a quick music practice for our teen praise team music. I did the Magi Healing thing after that; we had another short visit with his parents in the living room; and then I came home so that he could go to bed and get some sleep before getting started on day two of his football camp.

I should have tried to get more sleep too, but I had a long visit with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana after getting home that included a Magi lesson with Mom. Then I helped with getting my brother and sister off to bed; came up to my room; and multi-tasked some family business work with a soak in my Jacuzzi. It took me another hour after getting out of the tub to finish the work; I had extra nightly computing and email to deal with; and had a short text-chat with Violet that was mostly because she was studying and wanted to hear about the tryouts after finding out about my top news story of the day from my email to her.

That does pretty much bring me to the end of the news for today. While we'd normally have a future plans meeting after Dad's trip to the city, we're not doing that this week. We'll do that next week after the Lab officially opens, but Mom has enough on the go this week; and didn't need more on her plate – especially when we're getting ready for the holiday weekend on top of the regular work and getting ready for the open house at the lab. I'll do the full update on the local family business and future plans issues after that meeting; but I can tell you that we're all very excited right now – and not just because of finally being able to take Uncle Adam and Ehlana's research plans to the next level.

Right now it's time for me to take my personal energy level down a dozen notches or so and spend some time in unconscious mode; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa!

We had a family dinner at our house to celebrate and hear a few travel stories; but I'll get to that as we go along with the update for today.

My morning didn't start out with wake-up cuddles and kisses with my boyfriend; but I was fired up and ready for another busy, exciting day. Doing the wake-up calls for Ethan and Ehlana was fun; and so was Tai Chi with them, Mom, Dad, and Michael. Other than grabbing a quick breakfast, I was on the go again all morning after getting ready for the day and meeting up with Rowen before going on to the school for day two of our cheerleading tryouts. Since she collected me on her way there, I was also able to help her out with a little Magi Healing session to take care of some sore muscles and strains she had after our workouts yesterday.

I think that everyone in Witch Falls is nicer than most other places, but that doesn't mean there isn't drama – particularly when competing for activities like the football team or cheerleading squad is involved. There's no way I'll declare victory early before we find out which of us make the squad tomorrow; but I can assure you that Vanessa and Nora are not happy campers today – and aren't feeling very optimistic about their chances now. You shouldn't need to have more than one guess to deduce who is getting blamed for that. Rowen and I understand, and are trying not to make things worse; but being nice really just seems to be annoying them even more.

The drama is really just affecting Vanessa and Nora – and a few other girls. Being upset or angry isn't making it easy for them to be cheery or fired up; and faking it doesn't really work. I'm not suggesting that Rowen and I aren't the best of the freshmen group of hopefuls; but I do think that Vanessa and Nora could be doing better if they weren't alternating between trying to show off and getting worked up over how Rowen and I are doing. Again, that isn't something we can talk about with them; so we're just trying to focus on our own efforts.

Our warm-up and workout was just as tough as it had been yesterday; and Rowen and I were again at the top of the class for all of that – including being first and second again for the run. Yes, the Magi healing does give us an advantage, but in my personal case; my self-healing for things like this is pretty much automatic – and I'm not going to leave Rowen sore either when I have other options. Whether you think that advantage is fair or not is subjective, and whatever your opinion; the only thing that mattered to us is that it did help a little – and we impressed Dani and Linda.

What was even more exciting, though, was that we blew away all of the girls with our original routines. I'm not going to write about what we came up with unless we either use them if we make the team, or while lamenting our loss if we don't; but I can tell you that we came up with themed routines – and the one that was meant for a rain day game was picked as the winner out of all of them. The original routines part of the tryouts took a while, so we worked a bit later than yesterday to still have time to learn more of the routines from seasons past. All of that was a blast; and the best part of all of this for me has actually been watching Rowen shine in a way that I'm not even sure she suspected she could. As I mentioned already, we'll know tomorrow whether we make the squad, and while we'll be doing the full workout; the main practice will be a final round of tests and routines before Dani makes her choices.

Since our tryouts ran late, Rowen and I only had time to check in with Michael and Tim at the tail-end of their lunch break; and then they got back to work for the afternoon while we went back to my house for a quick swim and lunch before getting cleaned up and moving on to the salon to get our hair done. That was for our back-to-school appointments, but Vicky and Liz went above and beyond for us; and we're going to look amazing for those tryout 'finals' tomorrow! They also passed on some tricks and tips for doing our hair for best effect while cheering without having to worry about things like getting it dirty from brushing the ground while doing flips or having it get out of control and in the way of the other girls on the squad.

None of the other girls were at the salon while we were; but I wonder if Liz offers that advice to all cheerleader hopefuls? I was also picturing Ehlana and Naomi at the salon in about ten or eleven years having the same conversation, but that'd be different for them anyway; since Naomi will be a grade ahead of Ethan and Ehlana.

Anyway, that was another blast of fun, and then we had a snack break at the computer store with Owen and Patricia that included a recap of our cheerleading and salon adventures. Rowen stayed at the store after I needed to leave to meet up with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana at Grandma and Grandpa's house to welcome them home and help to unload their minivan. Mom and I didn't stay there long either because we needed to get home and working on the big family dinner; but Ethan and Ehlana stayed to have some quality time with our grandparents before needing to share them with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Dad came home a bit early so that he could start grilling the steaks, chicken, and kabobs, and while he was busy with that; Mom and I put together all of the side dishes - scalloped potatoes; corn on the cob; an appetizers tray; veggies and dip; and three cold salads. We eventually had extra help from our aunts and uncles; but Grandma and Grandpa were only given one job – spend time with their grandchildren. I'm including Leah in that, and while she technically isn't one of their grandkids; most of the grandparents in our families don't make the distinction when it comes to the junior cousins. Leah is being taught to address my grandparents as Grandma Aileen and Grandpa Shawn – which is the same thing that all of the kids are doing with the collective sets of grandparents. That might seem weird to some; but I like the idea of having more people to love in our family.

Michael was with me for our family dinner, and he came over after finishing his practice and going home to have a swim; hit the shower; and get changed. He assured me that we should all be grateful that he didn't stop in on the way home – particularly if we'd been standing down-wind of him. Dinner was a crazy-busy hour or so where we all ate too much and the entertainment ranged from travel stories from Asia to more teasing for Michael and me about our co-ed sleepover on Sunday night. While everyone else was spending the evening together, Michael and I needed to leave in time to get to our teen praise team practice, and with the holiday weekend service coming up on Sunday; we were at the church for an hour and a half before finishing a full run-through of the program – though we didn't have everyone there who will be involved in the skits and bible readings. Michael's going to be playing guitar this time too; so he's going to be very busy this weekend – especially if he's playing football of Friday night!

I'll take the over on the odds for that, though while Rowen and I will find out about cheerleading tomorrow; the boys won't learn whether they've made the football team or not until Thursday. Since I'm on the subject, let's back up and do the football recap as told to me by my favorite team prospect.

While our cheerleader tryouts didn't change a whole lot in intensity compared to yesterday, Coach Robinson took the football training up a notch or two; and added in new elements that ranged from tougher drills to a class on learning the basic team playbook. I didn't mention that in my journal last night; but the guys did have homework to do with studying the playbook to get ready for today, and while Michael's memory isn't quite as good as mine; he is at least as good as Dad in that department – and pretty much has all of that memorized already. He and Tim are also continuing to impress their coach and most of the senior players, and while that's sending some teen drama their way too; it isn't quite the same as it is for Rowen and me because the boys don't get cut because of team limits that most small schools never hit. They're mostly just in trouble for setting the impress-the-coach bar high for the junior players.

Tim's also sure that their coach is already picking places for them on the team; and that conclusion is mostly because they apparently spent almost all of the route-running and scrimmage time as wide receivers when on offence; and cornerbacks on defense. Jeff Morris apparently loves them because they either catch the ball or make sure that they block potential interceptions when he throws to them; which is something he hasn't really had a lot of help with when Kyle was their star and leader. This is second-hand through Michael, but Tim thinks that they're actually bringing up the excitement level for a lot of the senior players who were sure that our team wouldn't be very competitive this season without his cousin.

I like hearing that Tim's getting very confident now; but let's wait and see how it goes. His dreams of stepping out of the shadows his uncle and cousin cast over our local football program might take a while – if he can do that at all. I'm sure that his father is cautioning him; since he knows how that feels very well – even now. Martin is a very different personality to his brother, so I doubt that really bothers him anymore – if it ever did – but it is and will be a big deal for Tim.

Considering what I do know about his future, football glory won't be that important in the grand scheme of things; but I still hope his dreams come true for him – though I also hope he'll know that the best things in his life aren't going to be found on the football field.

Well, if Rowen and I make the cheerleading squad, at least one of the best things in his life will be on the field too; but you know what I mean! ;^)

After getting back from the church, Michael and I went for a swim with Ethan and Ehlana; and then caught the tail end of the family reunion until Grandma and Grandpa ran out of steam and went home to get some sleep. We took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed after our guests all left; and then ended out evening with a Magi lesson that included another healing session for Michael before I took him up to the lounge for a little cuddle time while we mostly talked football. That doesn't sound all that exciting to most girls, but we didn't really have a lot of time anyway; and Michael wanted to talk about some ideas he had for what he and Tim could do to make up for their two biggest problems for making the team – their smaller size and lower strength compared to the bigger guys. I won't go into the details there, but we did come up with some different options; and I'm sure that Michael will appreciate every chance he can get to avoid getting tackled by guys that out-weigh him by as much as a hundred pounds.

We did take time for a minor make-out session; but that didn't rank very high on the hot scale before Michael needed to get home and off to sleep. I still had some work to do along with my usual nightly computing; so he left nearly an hour and a half ago. The family business work wasn't anything major, but I spent a little extra time on the computer checks and email – and another bedtime text-chat; though this one was with Rowen instead of Violet.

She had fun hanging out with Tim tonight; and they tried out a couple of the suggestions I had for him to deal with sore muscles and the bruises and aches that go along with football. For some reason, they had a lot more fun with that than Tim would have on his own; but I won't go into the variations they used to make their non-Magi healing time so entertaining.

That does have me thinking about trying that with Michael; though we'd still do the Magi Healing too. That won't be an option for the rest of this week; since he'll be working and then I'll have a house full of family here; but I'll keep it in mind for future reference.

Right now I just need to get some sleep and be ready for the biggest day at tryouts so far this week. Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best – I'll let you know how it goes!

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Rowen and I made the cheerleading squad!

There were no surprise changes with the returning members of the team. Dani and Linda picked Anna Marie Palmer and Erica Bassett for the grade eleven girls; and Jenny and Tammy are back again too.

Our success has the downside of putting us in the doghouse with Vanessa and Nora, though while they're mad at us for messing up their plans for cheerleading glory; I doubt that they'd honestly suggest that we didn't deserve our spots on the squad. I'll leave that there, since I can't do anything about how they're feeling anyway; and it was pretty much the only bump in an otherwise really good day.

That started with Tai Chi by the river and Michael stayed for breakfast before going to get ready for his football practice. Rowen and I had a lot of fun with the workout and final tests that Dani put all of us through; and even Mother Nature seemed to be on our side today. I say that because we conveniently got hit with some rain while doing our cheerleading routines; and that really let Rowen and I show off that rain-themed routine we'd put together. While everything else we did added up; that might have sealed the deal for us today.

We didn't get to spend much time with them after our practice, but Michael and Tim were excited and happy for us when they found out the news; and we're sure that our boys are even more motivated now to make the football team than they were before – not that they're worried about us being around a bunch of guys without them every Friday night for the next few months if they don't make it this season.

Okay, maybe they're a little worried about that – even though they don't need to be.

That bonus motivation had Michael and Tim fired up for the afternoon half of their practice, and from what Michael told me tonight; they're doing pretty well compared to most of the younger guys – and even some of the seniors. We're both feeling pretty good about their chances for making the team; but I'll still hold off on calling that a done deal until they hear for sure tomorrow. Michael was a bit wound up when he went home tonight; so he might be having trouble sleeping tonight, but knowing Tim; he's probably out like a light.

I'm seriously thinking about getting into a lights out kind of state soon too; so let's speed this up a bit. After Rowen and I had our micro-celebration with Michael and Tim, we stopped in for a visit at the computer store; and then Rowen stayed to work while I went home. This was supposed to be a work day for me, and I did get a bit of family business work done; but I also spent most of the afternoon helping Mom with getting the house ready for incoming weekend guests. We had some rain off and on while doing that work; but it had cleared up a bit by dinnertime.

We had an easy-dinner meal around some pre-cooking that Mom was doing for the weekend; and then cleaned up in time for Mom and Dad to get to their baseball practice. I played at the park with Ethan, Ehlana, Aiden, and Naomi; and then went to meet up with Michael at the Inn in time to walk him home after he helped his parents and sister close the Inn for the night. We went for a swim that Rebecca, Ethan, and Ehlana joined us for; I helped Michael with another Magi Healing session; and then he pretty much went home shortly after we tucked the twins in for the night.

I've done a light version of my nightly computing; finished one family business project I'd worked on in the afternoon; and multi-tasked most of that with some Jacuzzi time. The late nights have caught up with me, though, and we'll be in for more of the same starting tomorrow; so I'm going to be early tonight to make sure that I'm at least at full power at the start of what is going to be five or six crazy-busy days.

We haven't really covered everything that happened today, but those are the highlights for me; so it'll have to do.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Michael and Tim made the football team today; and are the only freshmen to be selected by Coach Robinson. Their extra training must have helped some of the other guys too, because Lucas, Paul Sparks, and Luke Taylor all joined their Grade Ten classmate, Garth Green on the team this season; and they all trained at least some of the time with Michael and Tim.

Other happy campers today include Jeff Morris, who was named team Captain and senior quarterback; Caleb Palmer; and both of Sally's brothers – Alex and Mark. I won't do the full team roster; but all of the guys making the team are obviously fired up today; while there are others who are disappointed to find out that they won't be playing this season. Coach Robinson is going with a slightly smaller team than he had in the past few seasons; and quite a few of the guys will be playing both sides of the ball. Michael and Tim will be two of those guys; and they'll be our starting wide receivers and cornerbacks. Lucas is going to start as a defensive tackle; and will also be sharing running back duties with Caleb Palmer on offense.

While that news was the highlight of the day for our boyfriends; Rowen and I had a busy day too. The transition from tryouts to official practices felt a little strange with just eight girls; while Dani also took our collective effort up a few notches while adding in some team building work that included coming up with new cheers to add to the old, school standards and more recent favorites. We'll be doing one more shorter practice tomorrow morning, but while we still have some work to do to improve as we get back to school next week; I think we'll do just fine tomorrow night.

Wow – it's hard to believe that our first game is down to just hours away as I'm writing this!

Having that game ahead of us is one good reason for me being asleep by now, but we're doing our last camping night of the summer; and I'm not the only teen here to be a bit too fired up to rest. Our cheerleading practice went long, so Rowen and I again only had a few minutes to spend with Michael and Tim at the end of their lunch break; and then we were off and running again. For me, that meant grabbing a quick snack and then helping Mom for the rest of the afternoon around the house and in the kitchen. I did a bit more family business work too; so I had that up-to-date going into the weekend and we pretty much have everything ready for our weekend guests and the pre-cooked meal menu ready to go.

Michael was at the Inn for the dinner shift again today, and he skipped our baseball practice because the guys weren't having their football scrimmage tonight. Rebecca got the night off so that she could spend it with Lucas; and he stayed after football practice to have dinner with her and do the camping night with us. Our baseball practice was a tough one as Coach Claire worked us hard to get ready for our championship match on Saturday; and I'm sure that she does have us as ready as possible. Now it's just a matter of which team plays the best on the weekend. Michael and Tim met up with us at the park as we were wrapping up our practice; and we went back to my house for a cool-down swim and snack break.

We're just camping with the six of us tonight because Mom just has too much on the go tomorrow to handle a big group, and she even had the added bonus of Ethan and Ehlana ending up doing sleepovers at Aiden's and Naomi's houses for the night. That leaves Mom and Dad alone in the house tonight, if not technically kid-free; but let's not speculate on what they might or might not be doing with that free time – especially going into a weekend where we'll have a house full of guests.

That thought does have me tempted to sneak over to Michael's tent and... oh, that won't work because we're three in a tent tonight. We wouldn't have gotten away with putting up three tents, and four would've been a waste of extra effort for just a few hours of nap time anyway; but maybe I should have suggested a sleepover instead!

Moving on, we didn't do a campfire tonight, but we did sit on the dock and benches by the river and talk for a couple of hours before splitting up for some couples alone time. I'm sure that you can guess that football was a big part of that chat time – both for high school football and while the boys kept track of the college football games. Tim's probably still doing that in their tent; but that wasn't high on the to-do list for Rebecca, Rowen, and me once we were in our tent for the night. If tonight was any indication, though; we'd better get used to being immersed in football regularly from now until the end of football season – in February.

Before I move on from football, Tim is particularly fired up about college ball this season because Kyle will be playing; and his biggest problem this weekend is that his cousin will be playing a game while he's busy with baseball and holiday weekend work and play. With Friday night football ahead of us for the next few months, Saturday night could be one of our few date night options this fall; so it could be interesting to see whether Tim picks Kyle's football games over play time with Rowen. I don't have to wonder at all about what Michael will pick for us, but if Rowen does have any problems with that; I'm sure that we can come up with some ways for her to convince Tim to change his mind about his priorities. ;^)

Rebecca, Rowen, and I have been listening to music and having a nice little wind-down girl chat while waiting to be ready to sleep. Rebecca dropped off a little while ago, but Rowen is still hanging in there and both excited and worried about our first game as cheerleaders. I'm not worried about how either of us will do tomorrow night. I am excited too, though; and I'm sure that's exactly the same for me as it is for the other girls regardless of whether I'm looking at it from the perspective of a Magi Master. Being a cheerleader isn't world-shaking or even nearly as important as my family business work; but it is still special for me to get to do that with my best friend and cheer for our boyfriends.

For the record, Rebecca still is not remotely interested in cheerleading this year any more than she wanted to join with Jenny last year. She does plan on going to see more games to watch and support Lucas and Michael; but she'll do that on her own – though I plan on helping her to get to all of the away games too if I can work that out for her. It really would have been cool to have the four of us back together again like the way it was when I first moved here; but that'll never be quite the same again – particularly now that there are boyfriends in the mix. I do think that it'll be better with us for the next few years while we're in high school together; so I'm looking forward to that – and this has been a really good summer for spending more time with Rebecca.

I'm sort of dragging this out now, and should really just wrap it up and get started on the nap time; so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, August 29, 2014

This has been one very crazy-busy day, and there's a lot to write about tonight; but I'd better start with the football news since that is the biggest story in town tonight.

Our team is the talk of the town tonight not only because they won their game, but also because they did that mostly on offense; coming from behind after spotting Clairmont a two-touchdown lead in the first quarter. That was big news because we were expected to lose the game, and maybe lose it big. Clairmont is a perennial contender for the small-school state championships; we messed up their attempt at four championships in a row last year; and they definitely wanted to avenge that loss. I can assure you that they were talking big before the game – and during the first half; including some not-very-sportsmanlike trash directed at our players – particularly when we were on defense.

They should've paid more attention to our offense.

Yes, we did give up two touchdowns in the first quarter and did basically nothing on offense; but the second part of that was because we weren't on the field much while Clairmont was on two very long offensive drives and didn't get anything done on our one offensive chance between those drives. What the Clairmont players and coaches didn't seem to take much notice of was that Michael and Tim managed to break up every long play attempt with their wide receivers, and while Jeff wasn't able to get them the ball in the first quarter; they both did good jobs running their routes and getting open. What we were missing was exactly what Clairmont planned for exploiting tonight – the lack of anyone on the offensive or defensive lines to replace Kyle.

That's the main reason why Jeff didn't get much going at first – he didn't have time to throw and our run game got stuffed. While that probably seemed like the worst-case worries come true for some of the senior guys, our fortunes started to change in the second quarter when Michael pulled in his first official high school football catch that was good for eighteen yards; Jeff went right back to him on the next play for another eleven yard gain; and then hit Tim for twenty-five yards when Clairmont finally started to take notice of our comparatively small wide receivers. Caleb Palmer ran for the short touchdown that finally got us on the boards; and then Clairmont came right back with two more scores – the second after getting an interception from Jeff deep in our end of the field. That put us down by twenty-one; but we came right back at the end of the first half with Michael, Tim, Caleb, and Lucas all helping Jeff to get us down the field quickly and ending the drive with Tim's first high school touchdown.

That really had him fired up – and Rowen too. Since we're up to half time in this part of the report, though, let's talk cheerleading for a bit. First of all, while it wasn't as if Rowen and I didn't know that we could get rained on; we had hoped that wouldn't happen at our first game. The fact that it did was both a good and bad news story. Being wet off and on during the game wasn't all that exciting, and that made it challenging to smile and cheer our heads off; but it was very cool getting to use our rain-themed cheer routine when Dani decided it was the perfect opportunity to do that tonight during the halftime show.

We may not be anywhere near as flashy as the big school, competitive squads, but we had a lot of fun tonight; and even the Clairmont cheerleaders were impressed with our halftime routine. So were the spectators watching the game – including all of the members of my family that were at the game by then – though that wasn't everyone. Mom and Dad had brought Ethan and Ehlana to the game; though Mom went home to welcome our family when they got to town before returning with Uncle Rick, Aunt Melissa, Dawn, and the boys shortly before the end of the first half. I'll get to the rest of the family news later; but let's stick with the cheerleading and football news for right now.

The rainy-weather routine that Rowen and I came up with was based on a 'Glee' mash-up that we saw a YouTube clip of while looking for music for our original routines. I put the music mix we used together on my computer, and changed it up a bit; but this clip will still give you a good idea of what we did for our routine tonight – though I won't suggest that we were that good!

Glee – Singing in the Rain – Umbrella Performance

While we may not be ready for prime time, so to speak; that was fun – and so was cheering for our team during the game. That was particularly true for Rowen and me; and we had a lot to cheer about in the second-half of the game as our boyfriends were a big part of the comeback story for our team. We scored three touchdowns in the third quarter, with Caleb and Tim each getting their second touchdowns of the game and Michael earning his first. Clairmont scored a touchdown and field goal, so they still had the lead; but that was down to just three points going into the fourth quarter. They scored another field goal and then we took our first lead of the game with another touchdown to put the score at forty-two to forty-one. That was Tim's third of the game; and that had his taller, tougher Clairmont defender looking more than a little angry and at least a bit stunned to find himself getting out-played by a 'kid'. We then proceeded to lose that small lead after giving up another field goal with just a couple of minutes left in the game; and then Jeff used Michael and Tim to get us down the field again with the goal being to get in position to kick for the win. While that was the plan, Caleb broke through the line for a touchdown run instead and handed us the forty-nine to forty-four win.

Whatever happens during the rest of the season; our players are not going to forget how it felt today to earn this win. Caleb and Tim – and to a lesser extent, Jeff and Michael – were the heroes tonight; but it really was a team effort and all of the guys are really proud of their collective effort. I'd say that sentiment applies to our cheerleading squad too; and Rowen and I are particularly happy that we didn't have any major mess-ups with any of our cheers or the halftime routine. I know that Dani was very happy with us; and we were given lots of compliments after the game by our families and friends.

Michael and Tim were very popular after the game too; So Rowen and I didn't even get to spend much time with them until later – once we'd all hit the showers and gotten changed. The rain had thankfully ended by then; and it was nice to be warm and dry again. We didn't have much time to hang out together then either, but that was because Rowen and Tim needed to go to her house while Michael came home with me for a while. I'll get to that part of the story soon too; but let's back up for a bit now and cover the rest of the day before going there.

With just six campers this morning, and five out of six of us needing to be at the school early for football and cheerleading practices; it was a pretty quiet, but still busy start to the day. Michael and I joined Mom and Dad for Tai Chi by the river, and then we took turns working; getting ready for the day; and having breakfast. Rowen and I only had a comparatively short practice this morning that was mostly just a chat and minor workout; and then we were set free until needing to be at the school again an hour before game time. Michael and Tim had a longer practice that took most of the morning; but they also only had a light workout and spent the rest of the time having a game plan meeting.

Michael had to go help out at the Inn once he was set free, and I spent most of my late morning and afternoon mowing the lawn and weeding the gardens to get that done and out of the way for the weekend. While I was doing that, Mom was busy with her weekly shopping and errands; and the twins were at KidZone with Naomi and Aiden so that she could do that work more easily. We weren't having a Friday night dinner and a movie this week, but Aunt Leanne did host dinner for the family – a little family barbeque that I missed out on while getting ready for the game with Rowen, Jenny, and the rest of the girls on the squad.

Instead of doing that, I grabbed a shower after finishing my yard work; had a snack dinner; and then met up with Rowen so we could do our hair together using those tips that Liz and Vicky were so nice to share with us. There were some other tips for us too, but I don't plan on going into that except to say that they were all about making sure that our cheerleading efforts remain family-rated; if you know what I mean. Since neither Rowen nor I have any interest in becoming even inadvertent exhibitionists; we took those warnings and tips to heart. Our first pre-game fun with the cheerleaders included a good warm-up; and group pep talk; and a little bit of work as we got everything set up for the game – including getting music to the audio booth and hauling our gear out to the field.

We also had a little meet and greet with the Clairmont cheerleaders, and even at small schools; that can get a bit weird – at least from my fledgling perspective. Rowen was comparatively quiet while we were having that little meet and greet, but I was pretty much my usual hyper-active self; and we were both entertained while meeting the girls from Clairmont and watching some of the drama between girls on both squads that had already met over the past two years at the championship games.

By the way, I didn't mention that, but some of the players and cheerleaders were looking at this game as a tie-breaker match after each school had a championship victory. I asked Michael about that after, and our guys weren't thinking about that at all – or they weren't until after the game. The Clairmont players aren't very happy tonight, but that's probably more due to the fact that their expectations were too high; and that happened because they seriously underestimated our team. Of course, I'd say that it's fair to suggest that our own guys and coaches were underestimating us too; so finding out that they could still play with the 'big guys' tonight was surprising for them too.

Back to the cheerleader meet and greet, I wouldn't say that Rowen and I made any new friends in those short before and after game visits; but we did like some of the girls we met – particularly the Clairmont freshmen girls. We needed to get to work warming up the crowd ahead of game time, and my favorite part of that was seeing Rowen transform from quiet and shy to cheerleading dynamo. She hasn't gotten over being shy, particularly when it comes to being at the center of attention; so that should tell you how badly she wanted to do this – both for her and Tim.

There isn't really much more to add that I didn't include in the game report already. The sideline competition between our squad and the Clairmont cheerleaders was energetic and entertaining; and I already mentioned that our halftime routine was a hit. Clairmont's halftime show was good too; and what I really loved about my hometown friends and neighbors was seeing them support both squads in our efforts. When I have some first-hand experience with away games; I'll let you know whether that happens for us at other schools.

Moving this along, the post-game action including a bunch of cameo moments with our players, and Michael and Tim in particular for Rowen and me; our family and some other spectators; and another round of fun with the Clairmont cheerleaders and players. Packing up our gear again; heading into the school to hit the showers and get changed; and hanging out with the boys while having a bit more social time as everyone got ready to go home – or hop onto busses for the ride back to Clairmont. There wasn't an after-game party tonight because of the holiday weekend; but I would have needed to skip it anyway even if there had been one. Michael and I stopped in at his house on the way home so that he could drop off his gear and give his parents a quick game recap before they headed off to bed and we moved on to catch the tail-end of the Proctor-Rice family bedtime snack break and chat.

Chris and Martin were already in the lounge playing video games by then, but we went into the living room to hang out with the parents, Dawn, Ethan, and Ehlana for more than a half hour before the adults were ready to go to bed. Michael, Dawn, and I took care of getting my brother and sister tucked in and off to bed; and then we came up to the lounge to hang out with Chris and Martin. Michael joined in for the gaming for a while and Dawn and I mostly just watched them play and had a long chat about what we'd each been doing since her vacation here. Chris and Martin gave me their summer reports too, but that took them about a minute each – they worked; hung out with their buddies; and chased girls – with the third part of that having a firm catch-and-release rule that they thought was hilarious.

The only thing I have to say about that is to advise Michael that he shouldn't try that at home! ;^)

Michael had an extended curfew tonight, so I walked him home at a quarter to one so that we could share our goodnight kisses in relative privacy. That was fun, and so was the more entertaining girl chat that Dawn and I had after hopping into bed with Mandy and closing the doors to the lounge so that the boys could keep gaming as long as they wanted. Dawn might find her brothers' girl chasing rules stupid, but I noticed that her own thoughts on how she and Jillian plan on dealing with boys and dating this school year is actually not all that different. They are interested in dating; but not getting serious with any specific guys – at least so far. I hope that Tommy Reynolds isn't expecting Dawn to fall all over him this weekend; because she'd moved on within days of getting home again. I'll keep you posted if there is any news on that.

Dawn and Mandy are both sleeping now, and since I have a busy day and a championship ball game to play, I should be sleeping now too; so it's past-time to wrap this up and join them in la-la land. I haven't had much family time yet, but this weekend has started off about as perfectly as possible with the big football win and an amazing start to our cheerleading careers for Rowen and me. Hopefully we'll be able to keep that awesomeness going with our baseball play; and then have some fun with our families for the rest of the weekend.

Stay tuned – it should be an amazing holiday!

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

I may have to change the name of this archive from 'Cassie's Journal' to "The Witch Falls Sports Report' if every day starts with football or baseball news; but here we go again with another sports update anyway.

Our ValleyView Arctic Vortex team won the Championship game over Ayres' Avalanche; bringing the trophy home for the Wingboroughs and ValleyView Furniture. Landry's Lightning didn't fare as well, and Michael and Tim's team lost their match to the Fix-it Shop Storm. For the Lightning, their loss was at least partly due to having one of their best players too sore and tired after the big football game win to play at his best. They would have had two guys in that position, but I helped Michael out this morning before Tai Chi when I found out that he woke up bruised and stiff – something he didn't really even notice last night while still on an adrenaline high after the game.

Rowen, Rebecca, Jenny, and I had a big cheerleading group for our game – and they had a mini-competition thanks to Aunt Deborah and Leah helping to cheer for the team her in-laws were sponsoring. The action on the field was pretty good too, though while the game was close for the first four innings; we broke it open in the fifth and ended up winning fairly convincingly by a score of fourteen to nine. That also made for a relatively short match, so Rowen and I had time to go home; have a cool-down swim; and get changed before heading back to the park to cheer for our boyfriends in their game.

Dawn came with us for that, and we had some junior cheerleaders stop in to help out for an inning here and there around their playground fun time; but we didn't have a major squad for that game. That didn't make a difference, and while I wish that I could have helped Tim with a little Magi healing too; he also wasn't the only reason their team lost the game today. They gave up some runs in the first, the Storm had a comfortably-large lead by the end of the third; and both teams pretty much just cruised after that through to the end of the game. I'm not suggesting that Michael, Tim, and the rest of their team mates didn't try their hardest; but they didn't collectively have enough gas in the tank to overcome a big lead and that showed up in the eighteen-to-twelve final score. Michael and Tim were disappointed, but if they'd been told to pick either the football or baseball win; they'd have chosen this result in a second.

That's it for the personal sports news, so let's back up to the start of the day and go from there. I already mentioned that included a pre-Tai Chi Magi healing; which made the morning work-out much more fun for Michael – and the thank-you hugs and kisses worked for me too! He needed to head over to the Inn to help out there after that, and I was kept busy with helping out around the house and hanging out with my cousins. We had the full country breakfast; cleaned up; took turns getting ready for the day; and then Dawn and I spent the rest of the morning on kid-control duty to keep all of the younger cousins entertained while the parents were mostly busy getting everything ready for an afternoon and evening of family fun, barbeque meals, and a big campfire.

This year, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Grace were hosting the barbeques and campfire at their houses – though most of the action was in their combined back yards. I missed out on the barbeque lunch because of my game; but our cheerleaders brought a picnic to the game that included food hot off the grill and cold salads while others ate first and then came to catch the rest of the game. There was no end-of-summer trail ride this year because of everything else we have on the go; but backyard games, swimming in the river, and canoe rides were all play options for everyone – though I missed out on all of that too while playing or watching baseball most of the afternoon.

I was home in time for dinner, but didn't have Michael or Rowen with me for that – he was back at the Inn as soon as he could get there after the game once he'd also gotten cleaned up; and Rowen had dinner plans with Tim and the Landry clan. They all eventually came over for the campfire – though Rowen and Tim only stopped in for a visit since there was a family campfire going on at Lee and Sarah's house too so they spent most of the evening there instead.

With Michael busy anyway, Dawn and I were again on kid control for dinner, and we had most of the cousins with us for a picnic by the river while the adults and older teens had their meal at tables in the back yard behind Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house. That didn't give me much time to talk with any of them, but Jaimie and Kaitlyn in particular were happy to have Dawn and me to hang out and chat with while we all made sure that the toddlers ate at least some 'real' food. We also had fun playing and swimming after dinner until dark when the campfire was started. There was more parent and grandparent involvement for that play time; but I still feel as though I didn't get to spend much quality time with my Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents, or older cousins.

The big family campfires are always a hit, and we've had an especially awesome evening for it – not too hot while warm enough to stay in shorts, tees, and swimsuits. Having the grandparents around to tell some old campfire stories is a kid-favorite, and Michael and I were again recruited for a couple of duets that topped the entertainment highlights list too after he came over with his parents and sister. He and I took a turn playing campfire songs too, but Dad took care of a lot of that music earlier; and Jacob played for a while too shortly before he too Miranda home for the night.

Rebecca and Michael stayed at the campfire; and it wasn't that long before it turned into a teen-only event when the parents and grandparents collectively took all younger kids along and went home to get some sleep. Michael and I were both worn out by then, but we stayed up and hung out with Rebecca and my cousins until we put the fire out at one o'clock; cleaned up; and headed home. I was seriously tempted to keep Michael for the night, but we both need to be ready for the Sunday service with the teen praise team; so snuggling and playing with Michael for a couple of hours wasn't really a good idea.

Okay, it was a great idea; but not one we should act on. Aunt Leanne would tell me that I'm spending too much time with my parents to be thinking about my responsibilities like that, and while she'd be right about that; it's just the way I am – and so is Michael. Other than that, I don't think we're too messed up though; so we'll be okay even with our little flaws.

Anyway, while cuddling with Michael all night didn't happen, Dawn stayed with Mandy and me again tonight so that we could have another bedtime girl chat while her brothers again took over the lounge with plans to play until morning – or until they passed out; whichever came first. I'm sure that they'll be very unhappy about doing that when their morning wake-up call comes from Aunt Melissa. They might be able to get out of going to church on Sundays eventually; but they haven't won that battle with her yet.

While I'm on the topic of cousins, I don't have any teen drama to report from today with Chris, Martin, or Dawn. They all spent some time today visiting with some local friends; but there were no boy-girl sparks or action going on. Martin looked like he wished that was an option at the campfire while talking with Rebecca; but he knows that she's off the market now. It might have been interesting tonight if Jenny had come to the campfire too, but she was busy with her own family.

Speaking of Jenny, the McEwans aren't here this weekend, so Jonathan isn't here either; so she won't be having any big end-of-summer-romance drama this year. If the extra-curricular game action last night was any indication; Jenny doesn't have a problem with that – and it's only a matter of time before she finds her next boyfriend prospect. She isn't looking at any home town guys right now; but I do have the feeling that she wants to be part of the couples club again to be more comfortable hanging out with Rebecca and Lucas – and the other cheerleaders and their boyfriends.

It's way too late to be spending so much time on that line of thought, and I really don't have anything else to write about tonight anyway; so let's just wrap this up and I'll get started on my last nap of August. It's going to be a busy morning and early afternoon between the teen praise team service and Mom and Dad's championship game; but then Michael and I will be free to spend the rest of the day playing with our family and friends. That should all make for yet another great day; but I'll let you know how that turns out with the next report.

Until then; live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

I guess we can't rank today as high as my first Labor Day weekend Sunday in Witch Falls, since Mom and Dad did get engaged that night four years ago; but we have had a really great day!

For me, that started with Tai Chi by the river; breakfast with Michael and his family; and a lot of running around to get ready for the service in the park. Michael and I loved our second experience with the teen praise team; and our congregation definitely enjoyed the upbeat and energetic program we led. The kids were more interested in getting on with the fun and games; but we also kept the length of the service to just under an hour; so there weren't too many cranky kids by the time they were set free.

Michael and I were busy for a while after the service while helping to pack up and clear the stage for the next 'act' of the day. After doing that, we ran back to his house to drop off his guitar; got changed; and then had to hurry back to the park to pick up food and get to the ball diamond in time for the co-ed championship game. Yes, we had fun helping each other with getting changed, but that wasn't why we had to hurry – there just wasn't much time between the end of the service and the start of the game to get everything done. It's a good thing that Mom and Dad had lots of family help for Ethan and Ehlana because we didn't have time to help with kid control until the game started – and then I was only doing that in my capacity as co-head-cheerleader.

I was sharing those duties with Miranda today, and while we have fun competing against each other too; we had a blast today – and the cheerleaders on the Sheldon's Beer Buddies side of the diamond didn't stand a chance against us today. We had a huge group of girls cheering with us today because not only did we have our family, Rowen, Rebecca, and Jenny; but we also had pretty much every mother and daughter even remotely related to Hannah and Nathan supporting Hannah and the Bakery Beagles.

The game details are available elsewhere in the archives, and I won't offer insult to injury to the Beer Buddies by adding the blow-by-blow information here. All you need to know is that our Beagles won sixteen-to-five; and this was one of the shortest championship games ever that wasn't cut short by weather or other factors like the mercy rule. Miranda was sure that the win was entirely due to our cheerleaders; but I can assure you that three multi-run homers had more to do with the lop-sided score.

After the game, Michael, Dawn, and I helped out with Ethan, Ehlana, and some of the other younger kids while the parents went home to hit the showers and get changed. We played some of the games, had an ice cream break, and hopped in the river to cool off for a while before our parents were ready to play with us again. Michael and I stayed to play a few games with everyone, but then we moved on to hang out with Rowen and Tim – and Rebecca and Lucas when we met up with them too. Dawn spent most of that time with Emma, Kylie, and a few of their friends; mostly because she didn't want to be a fifth wheel with us. There wasn't a lot of time left until dinner, but we had fun while we could before going to meet up with our families again for that meal.

Rebecca was doing that with Lucas and his family, so Miranda and Jacob ended up with my family – though the Bassetts had their day camp next to ours; so they were able to spend time with Miranda's family too. That worked for the twins, since they got to have dinner with Sophia, Jessica, and Ryan; and Michael and I actually had a meal with some of our favorite adults while grandparents took care of keeping an eye on the babies and toddlers.

That was a lot of fun, and I especially loved getting to spend some time with my aunts and uncles. The dinner conversation was mostly about family and the upcoming arrivals of new babies; though there was some talk about the lab and medical center too. Now that the lab is finished, Uncle Blaine is particularly proud of how his design turned out, and while the lab doesn't officially open until Tuesday; Aunt Grace did do a tour with him already. Honestly, I haven't even given the lab much thought this past week or two even though it's been a big deal for Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; and that probably won't change much for the next little while – other than on Tuesday. I'll do an update on the lab then; but let's stick to the news of the day for tonight because I really need to get some sleep.

Michael and I helped out with the park clean-up after dinner, and then joined what might have been more than half the kids and teens at the park in the river to cool off until the dance started. While we had some cameo family moments over the next few hours; we hung out with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, and quite a few of our friends and older cousins. Michael and I also danced a lot – with each other; with Ethan and Ehlana; and once each with our fathers or mothers respectively.

The weather cooperated too, but rain was threatening by eleven o'clock when the dance was scheduled to end; and everyone took the hints that Mother Nature offered us to heart. We all packed up as quickly as possible; headed home; and managed to get everyone home with time to spare before the first drops of rain hit the ground here in Witch Falls. It could be a very wet night for some tent campers at the area campgrounds if they get hit with any major thunderstorms; but we haven't had any downpours yet as I write this now.

Michael helped with the packing up, but then we did our goodnight kisses at his house before he moved on to help his parents, aunt, and uncle while I continued on to my house to do the same with Mom and Dad. Spending more time together would have been nice, but we're both helping out with the four buffets tomorrow; and he'll probably go to the Inn first thing in the morning too to lend a hand with getting the breakfast buffet started for those of us who plan on going there to fuel up ahead of the annual Labor Day sales shopping. I helped with putting everything away; Dawn and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night; and then she opted for some Jacuzzi time once we came up to my room for the night.

Chris and Martin must be tired, because they're skipping another attempt at all-night gaming; so it's quiet here as I sit in the alcove doing my nightly computing while Dawn's busy. Mandy's already napping on my bed, and once I'm finished with this; I plan on joining her. This really has been an amazing weekend so far, and while we still have one more day to go; it still feels like we're already winding down toward the end – and the start of the new school year definitely feels imminent now too. I'm really getting excited about that as I think about everything we have to look forward to this fall; but I'll save reporting on those thoughts at least until tomorrow night.

Right now, I really just want to get some sleep, and I might not even manage to stay awake until Dawn's finished in the bathroom. I'm sure she won't mind if I crash and miss out on one girl chat – she's as tired as I am; and is probably dozing off in the tub – which is the main reason I'm skipping bath time tonight. Okay, I'm just rambling now, so let's wrap this up.

Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
September 2014

Monday, September 1, 2014

Michael came over for Tai Chi by the river this morning before going to the Inn to help out there, and while we were able to stay dry while doing that; the Labor Day sale shoppers weren't so lucky. The good news on the weather for me was that the heavy rain didn't start until an hour or so after I was at the Inn and helping out in the kitchen with the four buffet sittings.

While I loved the surprise of having Michael with us for Tai Chi, and that made for a great start to the day; I was soon immersed into the usual holiday weekend travel day chaos with my family while we all got ready to go out for breakfast and shopping and my cousins all packed up and loaded two cars and an SUV for the trip home. I didn't mention it in my journal on Friday, but Chris and Martin brought their car this weekend – a fact that mildly annoyed Uncle Rick because they didn't drive it all weekend; and basically just wasted the extra gas for no reason other than to do the drive on their own.

By the way, I agreed with him on that, and Chris and Martin just laughed at me and suggested that I take a look at how I feel about that in a couple of years when it's my turn to get a driver's license. They don't believe me when I assure them that I have no intention of getting my own car before going away to college at the earliest; but that's only because they don't think small town like I do. Sure, all of the 'farm kid' teens want to have their own vehicles once they can drive on their own so that they can get around – even if that's just to come into town – but I know what a waste it would be for me to have a car just to drive to the city once every two or three months for some shopping.

I will predict right now that Mom will lend me the minivan more often than Dad will lend me the truck, though!

That's taken this update totally off the rails; so let's get back on track. The packing was done by the time we went to the Inn for breakfast. Chris and Martin weren't in any hurry to go shopping, so we – the girls – actually left them at the Inn to start our shopping adventure when they went up to the buffet table for their third round. Miranda assured me later that my ravenous cousins didn't bankrupt the Inn by testing the limits of 'all-you-can-eat', but from what I saw before we left; it's amazing that they're not as big as Lee and Kyle Landry – particularly when their favorite 'sport' is video gaming.

Speaking of sports and Chris and Martin; I should have mentioned earlier that they're very impressed with Michael and Tim for not only making the football team as freshmen but playing a really good game on Friday night. I'm not sure what they expected, since I'm sure that someone told them before they came to the game that Michael was on the team; but they were definitely surprised. The good news for Michael was that having a good game only left my cousins with the option to tease him about things like how Tai Chi with me helped his game. They razzed me a bit about being a cheerleader too, but didn't really have much material to work with there; and soon gave up on their attempts at getting me riled up.

Rowen helped out at the computer store today, so we didn't get to shop with her, but Dawn and I had fun with our moms, aunts, sister, and cousins while we made the rounds of the stores. I'm not losing my touch or anything, but didn't really buy much today. I also didn't have a lot of time to play because I wanted to be at the Inn in time to help with getting the first dinner buffet ready. It was all work and only short breaks here and there after that through until the Inn closed for the night; but Rebecca, Jenny, Michael, and I had fun together even with all of the work. My family was at the first buffet, and while I missed having that meal with them; I did take a break to do the goodbye hugs and kisses with them when they were getting ready to leave and head out of town.

I won't bore you with the cooking and cleaning details of my afternoon and evening, and while we kept ourselves entertained; there isn't anything newsworthy to report from our gossip and girl chat time. After putting in a fifteen hour or so work day, Miranda and Jacob were exhausted; so Rebecca, Michael, and I hugged and kissed them goodnight and sent them off to bed when we got home. I didn't actually stay very long after that; but Michael and I did get to have a few minutes of alone time before I moved on to my house for the night.

Dad was still working in the office then, but Mom had gone up to their room for some Jacuzzi time after putting the twins to bed. I did the goodnight rounds with all of them on my way up to my room; and hopped into my Jacuzzi for a soak and nightly computing multi-tasking. That included a bit of family business work; but I kept all of that to a minimum tonight. I'll need to start my school-year work and study routine again tomorrow, but I want to be at full power for our first day back – especially since we have a lot of extra activities on the go – like the grand opening of the lab. Dani still has to work out our cheerleading practice schedule, but we'll also have that after school tomorrow; and the boys will be having football practice every day too. Add in homework, my family business job, and language studies; and I'm exhausted just thinking about keeping up with everything this year!

It's a good thing that sleep is an option right now; and I'm going to get right to that. Since we're about to start another school year, it's time to change up my journal ending. I still want to end every day thinking about Michael, so let's continue with the space movie-theme with just a little leap from the Trekkie to Jedi universe.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Happy 47th Birthday, Miranda!

Yes, I know the general rule for women about birthdays, but most women can only wish to look as amazing as Miranda does now – a fact that I'm sure Jacob is appreciating right about now because they're enjoying a kid-free night for one of her birthday gifts from Michael, Rebecca, and me.

Having the bonus time with Michael was a nice bonus for me; but I'll get to that part of the story in a bit; since I have a lot to cover from the rest of the day first.

There wasn't a back-to-school rush this morning; but we were all busy for other reasons. For Michael and me, it was because we were busy with his mother's birthday breakfast after Tai Chi; though I hit the shower and got ready for school first before going over to his house. Mom and Dad were busy because they had to get ready for the big open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at the lab. They aren't doing a major ceremony and the only media coverage will be for the town news website; but the ribbon-cutting is really only for the people in town and the new employees anyway – and all of the construction guys who worked on the project. It's a paid day off for the work crews to thank them for all of the work.

While I missed out on all of that while starting my first day of high school; Miranda's birthday breakfast was really awesome and made for a great start to the day. Jacob cooked some of her favorites; we had her open gifts; and then Rebecca, Michael, and I took care of the clean-up before hurrying off to school. It would have been nice if Miranda could have the day off, but she and Jacob both ended up at the Inn today to help out with the lunch and dinner rushes that came along with the open house at the lab and the first day of school – though they didn't stay for the clean-up after dinner tonight.

Michael and I didn't really have time to even think much about the Inn or the lab while we were at school. There aren't actually a lot of changes to our schedules between grade eight and nine because there aren't any optional classes; and we also have a different curriculum to most schools with twelve classes instead of four or eight – depending on whether the high school is on a semester system or not. One thing that is different, though, is that we have more teachers for those classes, and while we know all of them; we also haven't had most of them as teachers before.

Our home room teacher this year is Jane Connor, and in addition to her morning duties with us; she'll also be teaching us our English and Health classes. Those subjects are both on our Day One schedule, though, and we started the year with our Day Two schedule today; so we only saw Mrs. Connor during home room before moving on to our first class after a slightly expanded home room session that included the usual first day back instructions. The Day Two schedule begins with Phys-Ed; and we were outdoors for that today. Coach Robinson is our teacher, and while he didn't make a big deal of it; Michael and Tim were obviously his favorites in our class. Showing a lot of promise for being stars on his football team would have a lot to do with that; so nobody was surprised about that. Rowen and I were okay with that; and also had fun showing that our boyfriends weren't the only good athletes in the class.

While I'm thinking about sports, though; let's take a moment to talk teen drama. There was definitely some of that for Rowen and me today because we were in close quarters with Vanessa and Nora in all of our classes. They're still not happy with us; which meant getting the cold shoulder again along with some glares and muttered comments that were not particularly flattering. One change from a year ago when we were on their hit list because of Michael and Tim was that they kept those comments between themselves instead of trying to divide the class, but to be honest; that probably had more to do with our boyfriends than it did with us. Michael and Tim are teen and kid heroes today because of the game on Friday, so no matter how mad Vanessa and Nora are with us; they're not going to mess with that. I don't know how long it'll be before the drama blows over; but I hope it won't be too long.

That wasn't any fun, but Rowen didn't hear those comments that I could pick up; I didn't pass that on to her; and everything else today was awesome, so I really can't complain about this one little problem. There were a couple of guys who were disappointed that they didn't make the football team too, but the one big difference there was that they weren't upset with Michael and Tim because they did. I wonder if that has something to do with the football tryouts being a contact sport – not that I'm suggesting that the cheerleaders should start tackling each other to decide who should make the squad! ;^)

Moving along, we're going to love starting our Day Two schedule with Phys-Ed; and that will hopefully make History and Math a bit easier for some of our classmates – including Tim. We have new teachers for both of those subjects, with John Paul – or J.P. – Sparks teaching our History class; and Anita Reynolds taking on Math. I enjoyed both classes, and Michael, Rowen, and I got off to our usual great academic start with our new teachers – a fact that just added to Vanessa's and Nora's annoyance with two out of three of us. I'm a few college degrees beyond the level where name-calling bothers me; so it was just a little amusing to overhear them exchanging insults directed at Rowen and me. We'll see if they still feel that way when it's time to get ready for mid-terms and finals.

We went outside for lunch, and that was really the only part of the day that actually felt different. The funny thing about that was the fact that nothing much changed except for the fact that we hung out with the high school teens instead of the tweens and teens in Grade Seven and Eight. Sitting on the bleachers was the same; and so was the football action on the field for the guys. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I ate with quite a few of the football players and cheerleaders; though I guess it would be more accurate to say that we were at the center of a bigger group with friends and classmates from each grade hanging out with us too.

I don't really have anything all that exciting to report from our lunch break, and to be honest; the girl chat and gossip wasn't very interesting to me compared to everything else going on today. I was glad to move on to music class when it was time to get back to work again; and the afternoon sped along with Spanish and Politics being our second and third afternoon class. Cheerleading and football practices started right after last class; so Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I all needed to hurry to get to our respective work-outs. Our cheerleading practice wasn't as tough as they were last week, but we did do a full warm-up; and then worked through our cheers and the half-time routine that Dani wants to do this Friday. There could be rain in the forecast on Friday again; but she doesn't plan on using the same half-time show two weeks in a row at home games – even though we could use it again at away games this season.

The football practice went longer than ours did, so Rowen and I waited for Michael and Tim and watched the action with some of the other girlfriends and other spectators. Rebecca wasn't with us then, but she had stayed for a while after school before going on to the Inn to help out there; and that's where Michael and I went once he'd showered and was done for the day. We didn't really have time to help out by then, but we were able to have a short break and visit with Miranda while having a quick dinner and then we were off and running again. Rebecca came with us; we picked up overnight bags at their house; and then we dropped them off at my house before hopping on our bikes and riding over to the lab. We met up with Rowen and Tim there; but had time for a visit with most of the members of our family first while waiting for them to catch up with us after having dinner with his family.

By then, Aunt Grace and Uncle Adam had already shown off their lab to a large percentage of our friends and neighbors; so it was just the stragglers coming for the evening tours – mostly the adults who had been working all day. Ethan and Ehlana had been at the lab off and on all day too, but they still went on the tour with us; and Uncle Adam and Mom led the way. The entire building was open to the public; though not unattended except on the main office floor where there were also snacks, drinks, and presentations that could be watched that Mom and Uncle Adam had put together. That won't be the case after today, but we wanted to make sure that nobody was worried about what we'll be doing there by restricting access to any of the labs. That isn't to say we told the whole truth and nothing but the truth because we didn't. For instance, yes, the lowest two basement levels are for records storage and rare medical books for our 'parent' company; but we didn't advertise that the entire Magi archive from around the world was being delivered there, and that we're going to be protecting a priceless, irreplaceable resource for the Magi of Witch Falls.

Ditto that theme for the high-tech labs; particularly the level five lab on the first basement floor. It's actually more secure than that when the Magi-powered security is added; so there is no way that there is a risk to anyone. We won't even be using that lab very much at first anyway because the first projects that Uncle Adam and Ehlana want to focus on do not include any of the seriously dangerous infectious diseases anyway. They'll be advancing work they've already been doing on drought and flood-resistant crops, cold bugs, and cancer cures. I'm sure that Ehlana would love to take a shot at a cure for the Ebola outbreak going on in Africa right now; but she knows she isn't ready for that yet. After all, she's only starting her sophomore year at college tomorrow! Let's at least wait for that kind of research until she starts on her Masters or PhD in a year or two. Maybe Mom will insist that Ethan and Ehlana at least be in kindergarten before playing in the lab with one of the most infectious, deadly diseases ever – though she might change her mind if it can't be contained and becomes a pandemic.

You might be wondering if we could heal someone of Ebola, and while I suspect that we could; I don't actually know that for sure since we haven't exactly had the opportunity to try. There are some archive records from centuries past that record how Magi Masters dealt with plagues and other disease outbreaks that suggest there aren't any limits on healing other than the capacity of the Master; but the risks to the Magi were very high – and came from the people around them, not the disease. Even now I'm sure we'd have a lot of problems if Mom and I flew over to Africa and started healing all of the Ebola patients. I wish that we could, but this is yet another example of problems in the world where we can't help out directly without putting ourselves at risk. I seriously doubt that we'd enjoy being lab rats any more than we would have liked being under the thumb of Corwyn Hathorne. Making decisions like that really sucks; but we also do a lot of good in the world too – even if we can't yet directly intervene with our Magi talents.

That got way off topic, so let's get back to the lab tour. We went around the main floor first, and in addition to the administration offices, most of the support operations are there too – with the warehouse and loading docks taking up a bit more than half of the space. There were lots of open areas there, but we built to grow; so that'll be the case for years to come as we expand our research and add new staff. The second floor is almost all research labs and one amazing, atrium-style greenhouse where we're going to grow the hybrid plants that will hopefully lead to natural cures or new crops that can grow in nearly any conditions. Uncle Adam and Ehlana will have their own archives for the lab, so if you're interested in the details; check them out – especially at bedtime if you need help sleeping!

Just kidding, Ehlana!

Touring the level five lab was next, which was cool but not very exciting because there wasn't anything going on there anyway, and while Ethan had to play it cool with other people around; he was definitely fired up while we checked out both levels for his archives. As we intended, that was definitely the most boring part of the tour with nothing to see but rows and rows of mostly-empty book racks and cabinets. There were some work cubicles, but the computers that will be going in there aren't in place yet. Mom will be doing that work soon, and the wiring is done; so that'll mostly be plug and play to get finished. I guess that I should mention that there's a little office area by the elevators outside of the top archive elevator; but we didn't really advertise at all that the archives will have special security with very, very limited access.

The security system for the rest of the lab was part of the presentation, though, and from what we heard tonight from Mom and Uncle Adam; everyone was impressed with the state-of-the-art equipment that includes everything from retinal scans to elevator load measurements that earned some jokes about things like the employees needing to be careful not to eat too much at holidays anymore. I think that's funny, but the system is meant to detect extra, unauthorized people; not to act as a health and fitness coach.

While the open house was going on until ten o'clock, we still had homework to do, so Rebecca, Michael, and I headed home after the tour was finished while Rowen and Tim went to get their gear before joining us there to study with us. We did that in the lounge, and worked for an hour or so; mostly because using a little Magi power wasn't an option. Tim had the toughest time getting back into the study groove; but Michael, Rowen, and I are going to drag him along and make sure that he has an even better academic year than the last one – even with the added work that'll go with being on the football team.

We had a snack break and drinks with Mom, Dad, and the twins after they got home from the lab; and then Rowen and Tim headed home while Michael and I did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana and Rebecca borrowed my Jacuzzi. She's using Violet's room tonight, and while Michael and I were cuddling in the lounge by the time she was done in the bathroom; she only stopped in to say goodnight before going to bed and leaving us to enjoy a bit of alone time. That was fun, but not in a too-hot-to-handle kind of way – we just cuddled and enjoyed having a little chat together while winding down. Mom and Dad had both been doing some work in the office after the snack break, and while they didn't specifically order us to bed when they stopped into the lounge to say goodnight; the hints were there and we took care of the goodnight hugs and kisses shortly after they left for their bedroom. Michael stayed in the third-floor bedroom at the top of the back stairs tonight, and though we'll probably get razzed about that at school; Mom and Dad know they have nothing to worry about.

That brings us to my bedtime computing session, and while it was nice taking the summer off; I really needed to get back to work tonight – both on the family business and my 'real' language studies. My plan for this fall is to learn Vietnamese and Marathi. For those of you who would need to look it up, Marathi is one of the official languages in India; and part of the Indo-Aryan language group. I started with Vietnamese tonight; and worked on that for an hour or so before moving on to the family business work.

I'm likely going to need to do family business work every night now because I won't have as much time to do that during the school week with cheerleading and everything else I'll have on the go; which means that I'd better get used to late nights that are due to working instead of staying up late and playing with my friends and family. After an hour and a half of going through reports and proposals; I was able to move on to the rest of my nightly computing – and even that took more than a half hour by the time I finished catching up on things that I'd let slide over the weekend – like doing a Hathorne Industries check.

Delving into the bowels of that business can be disgusting, and they are doing everything they can to profit from some of the problems in the world; but at least we can still find out what their up to and try to mitigate the damage when we can through our charities. On the home front, they had their annual party on the weekend to pretend that they actually care about their employees; while the big news for Gwyneth is that she continues to be a little academic phenom. She's still exactly on a path that will have her graduating high school the same year that I do; and it's a safe bet that isn't a coincidence. I'm going to need to keep at my Magi lessons and studies too; since I'm going to need to be ready for what the twins and I know is the inevitable crossing of our paths with Gwyneth's.

That isn't something to dwell on tonight, though; and it's past-time for me to get some sleep – even if that is only going to be a few hours of down time. I'll either get used to having naps or start cheating now and then with a little time-phasing, but if every day is going to be as much fun as this one; I'm going to be enjoying myself too much to even notice being tired!

That is it for tonight, though; so I'm out of here.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

I have a lot to write about again tonight, but let's start with something that's just fun and totally unimportant.

We found out today that there is one very big difference between cheerleader and football practices – and I'm not talking about gender. Cheerleaders have the option to practice indoors if it's raining outside; while Coach Robinson looks at rain as a training opportunity for his players. Rowen and I were very okay when Dani moved our practice into the gym; though we will still be out on the sidelines rain or shine for the games.

It wasn't raining first thing this morning, so Tai Chi by the river was an option; and then Michael stayed for breakfast before going home to get ready for school. Rowen and I met up with him and Rebecca at their house; and we walked to school together. We had our first Day One classes of the year, and that also meant that we had Mrs. Connor for both home room and English – or first class of the morning. That happens with all of the high school classes most of the time from what we've heard; though there are occasionally exceptions for Grade Eleven and Twelve students if the optionals schedules need to be adjusted – though that's only when there aren't enough students for certain classes in a given year. For instance, music classes might be split-grade some years depending on how many teens sign up once it becomes optional in Grade Ten.

Anyway, English isn't exactly a favorite class for everyone, so starting with it on Mondays isn't going to thrill some of my classmates; but I like Mrs. Connor; and I'm going to have fun. Our computers class is with Mr. Sparks and we wrap up the morning in Geography with Coach Robinson; so there were no new teachers to work with all morning. Tim did find out that Coach Robinson is different in the classroom than on the field, but just in case you're reading this someday in the future beyond when Coach is teaching at the school; I'll add that he does know his Geography even if that might be unusual for someone with a major in athletics and sports.

There isn't anything exciting to report from our lunch break today; and my afternoon got off to a great start with Science class because Mr. Seager is our teacher. While it isn't always easy, science is probably the one 'core' subject that most of my classmates like; if not all of them. Mr. Seager is a demonstration kind of teacher; and I'm sure that we're going to have a blast with the experiments he's assured us we'll be doing on a regular basis to go along with the 'boring stuff'. We started the school year out with a couple of flashy chemistry experiments today, which is probably why that was more fun than the two easier classes that we ended the day with. We had Mrs. Connor again for Health; and wrapped up the afternoon with Mrs. Morris in Art class.

I already covered the news about our cheerleading practice being indoors, and while we had the bonus of staying dry; the workout was pretty much the same – except that we ran laps around the gym and added a run through the school that included two sets of stairs for a little bonus aerobics time. One bit of news that I do have is that our practice times are going to change a bit starting next week to accommodate other activities that some of us are going to be involved in – like band and sports. We're going to do two lunchtime practices on Tuesday and Thursday while the after-school workouts will continue on Mondays and Wednesdays. That'll work for Rowen and me with band practice on Tuesday; and will leave us with after-school study time on Thursday so that we can still do game night at the Inn on Thursday too – unless Rowen's going to make Thursday one of her work nights at the store.

Rowen and I didn't stay after our practice to wait for Michael and Tim; and not just because it was wet outside. They both had things to do after their practice anyway, so Rowen went to do some work at the computer store and I went straight home. The bad news is that I didn't get to spend any time with Michael tonight; but I did get to do my homework quickly with a little Magi-powered support. I did that after dinner because Mom almost had the food ready by the time I got home; and then it was time for the family business-future plans meeting with the full group.

There was a lot going on at that meeting, but let's start with the baby updates first. Aunt Deborah, Aunt Grace, and their babies are all doing fine, and while Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark are still getting used to the idea of having a Magi baby; Aunt Leanne advised us that our little cousin is doing very well with the pre-natal training she's leading. That's going great for Aunt Deborah with her baby too; and I'm glad that they're all doing so well. It would be nice if I had time to do more with them, but as usual; I could say that about a dozen different things that would be nice to do but I can't seem to fit into my schedule.

The lab was open today for the first official work day; and Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana were all there most of the day with Aunt Grace, Uncle Adam, and the small group of employees they've hired so far to work in the office, lab, and warehouse. The twins spent a lot of time with Uncle Adam so that they could do some actual work in the labs while Mom worked on the computer systems; and it sounds as though they had a fun day playing with the cool toys. While they were at the lab, Uncle Mark worked at the clinic; and he'll be the only full-time doctor in town from now on. Uncle Adam is going to work full days at the lab this week and maybe next week too while getting it up and running; but then he'll work half days at the clinic too and they'll take turns being on-call at night and on the weekends.

Since I've covered pregnancies and the clinic now, let's add in the discussion for maternity leave at both the lab and clinic. Aunt Grace will be off at least until the New Year or later; but she'll still do some work from home and probably check in at the lab now and then too. Aunt Leanne and Mom will help her with whatever they can do – and Mom can get away with that since she'll be at the lab a lot working on the computer systems anyway. Uncle Mark and Uncle Adam are going to do the same thing with Aunt Deborah's leave as they did last time – by filling her shifts with part-time help to handle the administrative work while dealing with the medical side of the nursing themselves. Grandma Johnson may insist on being one of those part-timers; but they're going to try to talk her out of doing that – only because we all think that Uncle Adam's grandparents deserve to enjoy their retirement after spending most of their lives serving our little town.

I guess the progress for the new medical center was next; and thanks to having so much nice weather; that construction project is now slightly ahead of schedule; and the building will be closed in by Thanksgiving unless the weather gets really bad this fall. As long as we hit that target; the clinic will be ready to be moved there next June. That means it's nearly time to put another part of our plan into play, and Aunt Leanne will start working on that soon. Some renovations will be needed, but the old clinic would be perfect for the KidZone daycare – especially since the only way they'll be able to grow with our town will be if they can move out of Sharon White's house where they've been running the daycare since it opened a few years ago. I'm sure that we'll make them – Sharon and Colleen – an offer they can't refuse!

Of course, that would have nothing to do with the fact that our family alone will need some of those new daycare spots for our babies and toddlers, right? ;^)

Okay, we've covered the lab, clinic, babies, and daycare; so let's move on to the construction in the new section of town. The big project there will be the second apartment building; and the construction for that will be starting next Monday. I've covered the overview of the plan for that, so there isn't any point in doing that again; but it is going to be nice to have the extra apartments that are particularly nice for seniors who don't want to deal with stairs in houses anymore and young singles or couples who aren't ready for first houses yet. That will cut back on the interest in the apartments over the stores along Witch Falls Road; but we have some plans there too – starting with the Inn.

That will be one of the few future plans I'm going to be getting involved in because of my proximity to Miranda and Jacob; though Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick will help out on the Ayres' side of the plan. This is again something I've written about already, so let's just add that it's nearly time to get that deal done so that the Inn can be expanded to grow with our town – not to mention being ready for having a second world-class chef joining the team in less than three years. If we can convince Jacob and Miranda to do the expansion – and talk Uncle Nick's father into moving the Haberdashery – by sometime in the Spring; they'll have two years to move the clothing store and then do the major overhaul of both the Inn and the Haberdashery and apartments above it to make the new Inn.

This journal won't be available to anyone until years after that happens; so let's just go ahead and admit that the Inn expansion is basically a done deal already. You can take that either as a high-probability use of the Sight for Ethan, Ehlana, and me or that I'm that sure of my powers of persuasion in convincing Jacob and Miranda that they really need to take that leap.

I skipped over some other construction for the new section of town, but that's pretty much the same as last fall with a few new houses being raised in time for winter so that the interior work can keep the construction guys busy during the cold months. A block of townhouses are going up too; but that part of the expansion will be slowly added a block of units at a time as needed. We definitely don't want the new section of town full at the expense of a bunch of empty houses on every other street; so Aunt Leanne is keeping a very careful eye on that part of our overall project.

That just leaves the non-family plans for around town, and the only new business on the boards for this fall is the second-hand shop that will raise money for one of our charities – though not even the owners will know that. Aunt Leanne reported that the deal for the store lease will be done by the end of the month; and they'll have the store ready to open by Thanksgiving. I already have my old clothes cleaned; boxed up; and ready to go for whenever they start taking deliveries. There are other businesses or town improvement projects being looked into for next year; including an Antique store and work at the park. Ethan, Ehlana, and I are getting involved with the park plans discussion, and in addition to putting in a new playground; we're pushing for expanding the park and putting in a real trail system for both biking and hiking. We'd love to see something along the lines of what you see in a lot of cities with a trail that goes all around the town and connects everything; but all of that kind of work will need to go through the town council along with coming up with the money in the budget; so that'll mean getting involved through the family business for the funding if there isn't any other options.

That pretty much covers the highlights from the future plans part of the meeting, and I won't bore you with the details of the family business news that followed – other than to add that we're collectively doing better than ever. That says a lot considering everything going on in the world right this year; but that's also why we need to do better – there are more and more people needing our charities. That also means that we're going to keep getting busier; so getting more help with the family business is something we'll need to think about soon too.

I haven't included a travel update yet either, but there are better archive sources to get the details about those trips from anyway. For the next few years, the archive trips are going to be worth keeping an eye on as Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor lead the effort to bring all of the archives around the world home to Witch Falls. The charity trips continue to grow as new volunteers join the effort; but there's just too much of that on the go all of the time now for Mom or I to do more than just keep track of the reports and offer direction to where volunteers are needed. Nancy Emerson takes care of everything else for us and is doing an awesome job.

Our meeting didn't wrap up until nearly ten-thirty; I helped get the twins off to bed for the night; and then Mom did a Magi lesson with me while Dad worked in the office. That made for a late start to my bedtime computing; which is why I'm just getting around to this update when it's even later than last night. The work and studying is done, though; so I can get started on my nap without feeling as though I slacked off on the work.

We're in for another long day tomorrow with the start of game night at the Inn, and with cheerleading practice and homework to fit in somewhere too; it's definitely time for me to crash and snooze for a while so I'm out of here.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

It'll likely be another week or two before my schedule starts to settle down into a routine, but one thing that I'm sure of already is that I'm going to need to make some adjustments; or I'll eventually burn out on a regular basis.

Then again, maybe I could use that to my advantage and have more sofa sleepovers with Michael without getting into trouble with our parents. ;^)

Before I get side-tracked thinking happy thoughts like that; let's keep going with the update. We've had another hot, beautiful day; and that started out great with Michael joining us both for Tai Chi and breakfast again before going home to get ready for school. It definitely started to feel like a 'normal' school day now that we were doing our first schedule repeat; so there really isn't much to report from the actual class work. We had the usual lunch break with football scrimmage entertainment, and Rowen and I sat with some of the other cheerleaders and our collective group of girlfriends.

I have to tell you that we're both finding that a bit strange being at the center of the group instead of on the edges. Vanessa and Nora aren't liking that at all, but we're trying to keep that change as low-key as possible; and some of our friends are enjoying the hang-out time with the most popular older girls. We're getting the hottest gossip around school first too; though I'm not going to write about any of that tonight – I'm really tired and don't want to go there right now.

That's why I'm going to speed this up a bit too so that I can call it a night and get what nap time I can before needing to be up and going again in a few hours. We had a good afternoon; our cheerleading and football practices were both light again as they will be every day before a game; and then I went on to the Inn ahead of Michael so that I could help out in the kitchen for a while before we had dinner and a study session with Rebecca before moving on to help out again and get the dining room ready for the first game night of the school year. Mom and Dad brought Ethan and Ehlana to the Inn for the gaming; and Michael and I had the twins with us most of the evening while we played games. Our families didn't bring home either of the championships this week, but we did have a lot of fun; and then Michael and I were set free so that I could walk him home and do our goodnight hugs and kisses without the entire family watching on.

I went on to my house with Mom, Dad, and the twins when they caught up with us and we finished with more rounds of goodnight best wishes with the Stones and Carringtons. Rowen wasn't with them, but I did exchange waves and smiles with her while she was still out on her front porch with Tim after they'd taken a longer route home than Michael and I had. We had some girl chat time on our computers after I came up to my room too; but I was busy for a while before getting to that.

My first job was to help Mom with Ethan and Ehlana while Dad got to work in the office; and then she did a long Healing lesson with me before sending me upstairs for the night. I've been doing my studying, family business work, and nightly computer checks since then, and without really having any work days available now; I really am going to need to put the extra time in at the end of every day to keep up with everything. Now I just need to figure out how to juggle my schedule on just a few hours of sleep a night.

That isn't something I want to deal with working out right now either, and since there isn't anything earth-shaking to report from my work or language studies tonight; I'm just going to turn this computer off and get started on my nap. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, September 5, 2014

My Friday night updates are going to start with a football report for the next few months; and there's even more to write about tonight than last week – particularly with the off-field action.

First of all, I have to wonder if Vanessa and Nora are feeling any better about not making the cheerleading squad now that we've had two games in a row where we had to deal with rainy weather. Maybe not, but the glamour of the 'job' is wearing off fast for Rowen and me – even if we are still having fun with the other girls while cheering for our boyfriends. We had a lot to cheer about tonight too; so let's talk football for a minute before getting to the off-field news.

Maple Valley is probably our single biggest division rival, and while that is a good-natured competitiveness between our schools; winning the game is a big deal for both teams. I'm sure that our rivals were probably hoping for better results this year than they've had lately while Kyle was on our team; though I doubt that was still true once they heard about the results of our game against Clairmont. It didn't take long for our team to prove that our first game wasn't a fluke; though Maple Valley also soon found out that our game play was quite a bit different than it had been with the team built around Kyle.

I was particularly fired up right from the start of the game because my amazing boyfriend got that great start to the game for our team started with a forty-three yard touchdown catch and run that left two of the Maple Valley defenders looking shell-shocked. Jeff had used Tim and Caleb to get the team moving up the field until then; so it had also been the first play directed at Michael and he'd been completely overlooked until it was too late. I just wish that we were allowed out onto the field to share hugs and kisses with our boyfriends at moments like that; but I suppose the games would take a lot longer if that was an option. ;^)

There was still lots of reasons for our fans to cheer for our team after that first big play of the game, and Michael was kept involved in the game; but that was his last touchdown for a while as the Maple Valley coaches and players suddenly found it necessary to do everything they could to slow him down. Unfortunately for them, that just gave Jeff lots of chances to let loose with Caleb, Tim, and Lucas. We gave up a fairly quick field goal, but then Tim wrapped up our second drive of the game with his first touchdown catch of the night and then Caleb broke a nice run for a touchdown that again surprised Maple Valley after Jeff had been focusing on the passing game most of the time until then.

That gave us a twenty-one to three lead going into the second quarter. Maple Valley came back with a touchdown to close the gap briefly before Tim ended our next drive with a twenty-five yard touchdown; and Lucas punched in a six-yard score for our fifth touchdown of the first half. Maple Valley opened the second half with a touchdown that had their fans temporarily excited until Jeff then hit Michael for another long touchdown just a handful of plays later – this one for thirty-four yards. With a forty-two to seventeen lead at that point, Coach Robinson put the scoring brakes on our team; and we kicked field goals from then on even while piling up a lot of yards for each drive. That made the rest of the game seem closer than it was with our team just barely out-scoring Maple Valley twelve-to-ten; but the point of that was to avoid a blow-out on the scoreboard. Fifty-four to twenty-seven was still a big win for us; and most of the Maple Valley players and fans went home disappointed.

I say 'most' for that because at least one fan was very happy – and it had absolutely nothing to do with the game. He was a happy camper because he has a date for tomorrow night with one of the Ridge River Raiders cheerleaders. Lance Caldwell had waded into 'enemy' territory early in the game with some buddies to check out the local girls – including the girls on our squad; and ended up spending most of the evening doing his very best to get Jenny's attention while watching her more than he watched the game. His efforts were rewarded, and Jenny definitely smiled more brightly and showed off a bit more while flirting with him.

Jenny doesn't really know much about Lance yet, so agreeing to go out on a date with him tomorrow is definitely a step or six farther than I'd be willing to risk with someone I'd just met – if I was single like she is. He's easy enough on the eyes, but I wouldn't say that he's extraordinary compared to a lot of other guys; and certainly not in the same class as the best-looking guys in our town – Michael and Tim included. He's also something of a departure from Jenny's boyfriends to date because while he seems to be in good shape; he was dressed to impress and looked as though he hasn't experienced much in the way of manual labor in his life. So what attracted Jenny to him over other guys who were obviously interested in her too? Honestly, I have no idea. The sum of her girl talk after the game while we were getting changed before she ran off to spend a little time with him before he went back to Maple Valley added up to "he's hot; in Grade Eleven; and about to turn sixteen." That's a magic number with her right now; since that translates into old enough to drive.

Tammy Morris wasn't at all surprised at Jenny's reaction to Lance, so maybe she knows Jenny better right now than I do; but I'll also guess that Emily will not be thrilled with the date news. Jessie is way too easy-going to say much about it; but then there's also a chance that he knows Lance's family; since he seems to know everyone in the area – just as Miranda does. That's bound to happen when you're the only fix-it shop around in a part of the country where people still believe in trying to fix things instead of throwing them out and buying new toys. That is getting harder to do these days; but Jessie is adapting as needed too.

That's not really a story I need to write about here, though; and there's other news from the game that I should get on with reporting. Since the next story could help cut back on my personal teen drama; I'm all for the potential for this little piece of gossip. Okay, it actually isn't gossip beyond Rowen and me – and probably Vanessa and Nora; but it will be soon. Vanessa, Nora, and Elliott were at the game tonight, and sitting near enough to where we were cheering for our guys that I could see and hear them. It's why I caught a few stray whispers they exchanged about Paul Sparks; and Vanessa started paying more attention to him after Paul made a really good defensive play against Maple Valley during their first possession of the game. He plays Safety on defense, and while he only rotates in on offense for special plays; he's one of the faster guys on our team – after Michael, Tim, and Caleb. Anyway, after he blew up an attempted long play; Vanessa kept an eye on him for the rest of the game; and made a point of tracking him down and congratulating him after the game.

I won't suggest that it's love at first sight for them because their little brothers are best friends. For those of you who might not remember by the time you read this, their brothers are Tommy and Julian – the boys who spent so much time with Dawn and Jillian while they were here this summer. We probably wouldn't be speculating too wildly to guess that Paul was off of Vanessa's radar due to the little brother issue. From what I saw tonight, she's definitely not looking at Paul as nothing more than the older brother of an annoying brother's pest-best friend. I'd like for Vanessa to be happy, but I'll also be honest and admit that I'm only writing about it because there's a good chance right now that she's about to be too distracted to be annoyed with Rowen and me. If she and Paul do get together, she'll also get that inside track to the popular teens that she wanted to get through being a cheerleader.

For tonight, that would have meant going to the after-game party at Jeff and Tammy Morris' house. While that wasn't totally new for Tim since he'd been to those parties after Kyle's games before; it was an experience for Rowen, Michael, and me. Fortunately, our snowed-in weekend with Tammy and her family had made a special bond between our families – even if we aren't really close friends; so hanging out at their house for the first time with all of the guys on the team; our fellow cheerleaders; and our collective girlfriends and boyfriends was a blast.

That doesn't mean that we had an all-night party or anything, and we weren't in any danger of having the cops called on us; but we did celebrate the two-win start to our season, and even being a bit crowded because we were indoors due to some off-and-on rain showers; that just added to the entertainment and fun. Rowen and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Michael and Tim, but when they were busy; we hung out with Rebecca, Jenny, Carolyn, Tammy, and some of the other girls. There was music, lots of snacks and drinks, and as usual when a group of guys get together; video game competitions.

The good news with the party is that we're included with that group of friends now, but the bad is that Michael and I missed out on having any alone time opportunities that we might have had if we'd just been able to go home after the game. We also missed out on dinner and a football game night with my family; though even some of the guests for that didn't stay for the entire game. Rain and an lop-sided score will have that effect on spectators sometimes – especially when it involves unhappy babies or toddlers – or uncomfortable pregnant women. I can relate, since it wasn't much fun being wet a lot of the time during the game for me tonight – though at least it wasn't cold too. Let's not go there; and hope that doesn't happen to us this season.

Instead of any alone time, Michael and I had to settle for a fairly short goodnight hug and kiss on my front porch; and we also needed to leave the party before most of the older teens due to our junior curfew. I'm not complaining about that; and was ready to go home by then anyway – even if Tim wanted to stay and party on. Michael and I offered to walk Rowen home and make sure she got some goodnight hugs and kisses if he wanted to stay, but he's learned enough to choose correctly and pick walking her home over ongoing gaming with the guys.

Of course, he might have gone back after that; but if he did; he wasn't admitting that to the rest of us while we walked most of the way to my house and Rowen's together before splitting up when we got to Riverview.

Mom and Dad were in bed by the time I got home, so I only stopped in to Ethan's and Ehlana's rooms to kiss them goodnight before coming up to my room; and I got ready for bed right away before cuddling with Mandy and getting to work on my computer. Taking the weekend off from the work and studying wasn't an option; but I did cut back a bit so that I can still be done before three o'clock – if barely. I don't have anything interesting to report from my studies or family business work; but I should do a family kid and teen update for school since I haven't done that yet this week; and I had email reports waiting for me tonight from most of my cousins.

That didn't include Chris and Martin, but Dawn sent me a report that included a little bit of news from her older brothers. Chris is in Grade Twelve and ruling the school with his buddies. I'm sure having his own car helps with that quite a bit; and Martin is happy to go along for the ride. Having access to a set of wheels when you're in Grade Ten – even when it's through an older brother – is practically a guarantee for some peer points. Dawn hates to admit it, but her brothers are probably more popular than Violet was in high school; and even with their 'catch and release' girl policy; that doesn't seem to deter the eligible girls from chasing after them.

Dawn and Jillian had a good week in Grade Eight; and they're ruling their school with their friends too this year. They also have some boys trying to make moves on them already; but they haven't been caught and Dawn doesn't sound as though she's in any hurry to be caught. While I have football and post-game parties going on here, that doesn't seem as exciting as the action Dawn, Jillian, and their best friends have planned this weekend. They had a sleepover tonight; are going shopping at the Mall tomorrow; and will either be going to a matinee or evening movie on one side or the other of dinner at a restaurant. That's going to be way more fun than the yard work day I have in store for me tomorrow.

My junior cousins might be Mall-hopping and going to movies with their friends this weekend too, but if they are; they didn't include that news in their updates. Jaimie and Kaitlyn both advised me that they love their teachers and are glad to be back at school where they can see their best friends every day again. Jaimie is in Grade Four and Kaitlyn is in Grade Two. They're both popular, and it's no surprise that they're also among the best students in their respective classes too. On the Johnson side of the family, Kara is in Grade Two as well this year, her brother, Eddie, is in Grade One, and their cousin, Nicole, is starting Kindergarten this year. Their updates came from their mothers, so other than the basics; I don't have much on how they're enjoying being back at school so far.

The only cousin update I have almost nothing on is for Jonathan. What I do have came from Christina; and that was really just a side-note. He's in Grade Eleven now, and while he's only a handful of months older than Martin; they're on opposite sides of the cut-off – and is where Martin wished he was compared to Chris instead of being two grades behind. There was also no news about girls in his life; which has me wondering how he'll feel when he finds out that Jenny's already moved on and will be dating a new guy this weekend.

I am so glad that I won't have to deal with that kind of thing, but I've mentioned that before; so let's not go there again.

instead, I'm going to do a micro-update for the rest of the day; wrap this up; and head off to dreamland while I still have time for a nap before it'll be time to get up and moving again. The forecast rain didn't get here this morning, so Tai Chi by the river was an option; and Michael again stayed for breakfast before we split up and got ready for school. With just a four-day school week, we were on the Day One schedule today to even the week up; and the class work part of the day was fairly uneventful. Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I did our homework right after school at the computer store; and then it was time to split up and get ready for the game – including getting something to eat. Michael did that at my house, and we dipped into some cold salads that Mom was getting ready for their meal to go with the burgers we cooked up on the grill.

We were at the school by six for our respective warm-ups and the rest of the pre-game action around the school and field; and you have the highlights of the football action already. I haven't really said much about the cheerleading, but even though we had fun; there's only so much a person can write about the same cheers and a half-time routine before it gets redundant. That's why I'll skip that this week and save any news from the squad for more interesting moments – like we could have at our first away game next week.

That's all I have for tonight, and I'm way-past ready for that nap time; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, September 6, 2014

The humidity broke overnight with the rain, so it was a lot cooler by morning; but the sun was out and the sky was clear by the time we went outside for Tai Chi this morning.

If my Friday reports are going to start with football, I guess Saturdays may begin with Tai Chi and Magi Healing sessions – with the Healing being for Michael to take care of his morning-after football strains and bruises. Maybe we should start doing that with the good night hugs and kisses; but that wasn't an option the last two weeks; and might be an issue for all of the away games. We'll figure that out, though; and I'll let you know how it goes. For today, Michael was just glad to get the relief before getting started on a busy work day.

That one word pretty much describes what I was doing today from the time he left for home after breakfast until we stopped for a late dinner tonight. Dad and I worked outside most of the time; we took a couple of short breaks plus lunch; and worked out butts off getting our to-do list covered so that he'll have a bit more time next weekend to get ready for his week in the city. The lawn, gardens, storage barn, and truck and minivan all looked great by the time we sat down at the patio table to have dinner, and that felt good; but by then, I pretty much was just ready to crawl into my Jacuzzi and soak for a while.

Mom let me do that after we finished eating, and I had about an hour to get cleaned up before Michael came over after finishing work at the Inn for the night. We did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; and then came up to the lounge to watch a movie. I'd tell you that we watched the entire show, and could back that up with reciting any scene you want to pick from it, but if you've been reading my journals in order; you know I can do that for pretty much anything that happens around me. No, we didn't actually watch the movie, and though we were both tired; we also weren't going to miss out on an actual make-out opportunity.

While having that play time together was fun, I'll also add that we only managed to make things medium-hot. That might not sound right out of context, so I'll also add that we were doing what we wanted to do together; and sometimes you don't want hot and heavy. If you're laughing at that comment right now because I'm writing about two young teenagers; try to keep in mind that we're not your average teen couple – even for Magi. Depending on how far into my future you're reading this, you'll either know what I mean by that in your present; or will be able to read on to find out the whole story if I'm some distant figure in your history.

That's sort of strange thinking about someone reading my journal in the distant future the way I read archives from millennia-past, but then that is why we do this.

I'm not going to wander off onto any major side-trips tonight; so let's keep the story moving along. Michael stayed until just before midnight; we did our goodnight kisses out on the front porch; and then I came back up to my room to get ready for bed and started on another round of studying and family business work. I also had a bedtime text-chat with Rowen that included comparing notes on our respective alone time with our boyfriends; and a bit of news from Jenny's first date with Lance.

His parents might have had some concerns about his sudden interest in a girl from Witch Falls, and that's probably why their first date was here in town. Of course, it could also be that his parents didn't want to make the round-trip twice; but that isn't a detail I have the answer for tonight. What I do know, and this is from Michael, is that Jenny and Lance had dinner at the Inn. They were on their own for that, but his parents were at their own table in the dining room; and apparently were going to stay in town and visit friends while Lance spent a few hours with Jenny. I'm sure that Jenny will tell us all about her date when we see her tomorrow, but she did tell Rebecca before she and Lance left the Inn that they were going to do a walking tour around town and then watch a movie at Jenny's house after that. We also now know that Lance Caldwell is of 'the' Caldwell family of Maple Valley – essentially the equivalent of the Palmers here in our humble little town. Without any other information; I'll predict that Jenny is going to make Lance Caldwell's life very interesting this fall and winter.

While I'm commenting on teen relationships, I wanted to make a note about Rebecca and Lucas because I've been thinking about them tonight too. They've been happy this week to spend time together every day at school, and they got to spend time together last night after the game; but Lucas is busy all of the time the rest of the week between football practices and helping his father on the farm. He's up in the mornings before dawn doing chores and working every evening and on the weekends; so there isn't many chances for him to get together with Rebecca outside of school – especially when you add in her own schedule. I'd like to help them out with that; but have no idea how right now. I'd say it'll be easier during the winter when there's less farm work and football season is over; but then they'll just have weather to deal with to get between town and the farm. I'll try to remember how easy Michael and I have compared to that the next time I'm wishing that we had more alone time together – or try to do that.

I cut back a bit on the work tonight, but it's still after two o'clock now; and I am once again past-ready for some down time. I don't have anything planned for Sunday other than helping out at the Inn for the buffets; so I'll try to get started on my studies and work earlier tomorrow night and maybe get to sleep a bit earlier if I can manage that. Sleep really is all I want to do right now, though; so that's all for tonight, folks.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Oh my gosh – I didn't mention Kyle Landry's college football exploits in my journal yesterday; and didn't even start every conversation I had at church this morning with that news! I am obviously in desperate need of some rehabilitation to help me become a better home-town girl!

Of course, I didn't mention to Tim that Rowen didn't even discuss Kyle at all during our girl chat texting last night or that Michael and I had more interesting things to do that had nothing to do with football at all; but I digress. ;^)

Kyle's team won their game yesterday; he was a defensive star; and Tim did not understand why everyone wasn't as fired up about that as he and his Uncle Lee are. I'll try to do a better job of that next week, but I really hope that Tim doesn't think that Rowen and I have suddenly become football groupies just because we're cheerleaders. We're doing that for our two favorite players; not for love of the game.

I'm so glad to have that out of the way because the rest of this update is going to be of the micro variety. My day consisted of Tai Chi by the river; breakfast with Michael and his family; church; lunch with my family; some afternoon play time with Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana in the afternoon; and four hours of fun helping out at the Inn during the buffets. After that, I went home; have worked on everything from a Magi lesson with Mom to my usual bedtime studies and family business projects; and now it's time to actually get a near-normal night of sleep.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, September 8, 2014

It's late, so I'm going to try and keep this update short so I can get started on my nap.

The main news around town today was the start of the construction for the second apartment building in the new section of town. I'll keep you posted on that with the updates on future plans meeting days, but there really isn't much else to write about today; since the work we're talking about here is just laying the foundation.

With so much going on since Labor Day, it's hard to believe that we were starting our first full week of classes today. The back-to-school party is definitely over, and while the school work isn't difficult for me; there is a distinct step up in the expectations now that we're in high school. I won't bore you with the curriculum details, but I will mention that I'm having fun. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I have a block of seats together in most classes; three out of four of us keep entertained competing to answer questions; and playing 'normal' student is more fun than ever for me.

The weather was nice again today, so lunch outdoors with football entertainment was an option; and the top chat topics for the girls included Jenny's big first date with Lance and Vanessa's more subdued interest in Paul Sparks. Jenny is bouncing off the walls kind of happy today, and while that was fun to watch; I'm not as impressed with the motivations behind why she's interested in continuing to date Lance. Maybe my opinion about that isn't fair because money isn't a motivating factor with me for obvious reasons; but I also think that the things I love most about Michael are all important. Jenny and I only have one common item on our lists for this – we both think that our boyfriends are good-looking. As for the rest of Jenny's list, it's remarkably shallow; so let's just leave it alone and not make a big deal of it.

It's pretty much been non-stop for me today from Tai Chi through until now. Our cheerleading practice after school was a bit longer because Dani had us work on a new half-time routine for our first away game. Our squad isn't going to have to worry about being discovered by Hollywood and offered a big movie deal or anything, but I do think that what we're doing is fun and entertaining for the spectators even if we don't have the big, cool aerials and tricks in our cheers and routines. That could actually be an option for some of us, but I'm sure the Magi Council would have a problem with that; so we'll just stick to the cute and creative instead.

I had dinner at Michael's house after we were finished with our practices; and then Rowen and Tim came over so that we could do our homework together. That studying included a music practice for both our class tomorrow and so that Rowen and I could get ready for our first band practice tomorrow. Michael won't be able to go to those practices during football season, but he's still going to be in the band; and I'll work with him on our music – particularly as it gets closer to the Christmas parade and concert season. Michael and I had a little guitar lesson tonight too, but then I went home when Rowen and Tim left so that I could be there to do the bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana – and tuck them in for the night.

That took a while because they had a lot to tell me about with both their play time at the lab and their sophomore college schedules, but they've also had a busy day; and eventually ran out of steam – exactly as I am now. My day wasn't over then, though; and Mom spent over an hour working with me on a long transmutation lesson before setting me free to come up to my room and get started on my bedtime studies and work. Since then, I've spent an hour on full-immersion Vietnamese; an hour and a quarter in the archives; and another hour on the family business. Add in the usual nightly computer and email checks; and I'm sure you can see why I'm totally baked now. I'm overdue for a college teen update, but I'll save that for another time, and since there isn't really anything else major to report tonight; I'm out of here and off to dreamland in five... four... three...

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I'd say that Tuesdays are going to be one of my busier days this Fall; which explains why I'm beat as I write this in the wee hours of the morning.

This morning, after Tai Chi by the river; I got ready for school and then went to have breakfast at Michael's house. We had fun with all of that, and then Michael and I were both on the run pretty much all day from the time we left school until when I climbed into bed with Mandy and my computer a few hours ago.

We're settling into a routine with our classes now, and that's going smoothly enough, but I definitely felt a bit rushed adding in our cheerleading practice to our lunch break time; and fitting in our first band and praise team practices of the school year before and after dinner meant that we didn't really slow down at all after school. For both of those practices, we were also dealing with new members joining both groups, and while we have some time before our first concert and Sunday service respectively; there was also a need to ease the new musicians and singers into each group.

While Michael wasn't at our band practice, he and I are being moved up to second saxophones in the band despite only being in Grade Nine. We're both happy with that, since we get to play some lead saxophone parts for quite a few songs when our section only has two parts for the music; and Mrs. Robinson has told me that she has a saxophone duet or two in mind for us this year. She'd also prefer it if Michael could be at our practices too, but when your husband is the football coach, you sometimes just have to accept that even in a little town like ours; football comes first. Michael isn't the only boy in the band to get that exception – he's just one of Mrs. Robinson's favorites.

The weather didn't affect any of my practices today, but it did make some of the walks to and from school, home, and the church a bit damp; and Michael and Tim had to deal with some rain during their football practice too. The boys would be okay with getting wet a few times during practices if we could actually get through a game without rain; but I should probably stay away from commenting on that or risk jinxing us for the entire season.

Michael and I had dinner at my house tonight; though we didn't have much time to do that before needing to get over to the church for the teen praise team practice. Rowen and Tim will get involved with the teen services and youth group this year too; but they aren't joining the praise team. In Tim's case, to be blunt, that's because he doesn't have a lot of talent for singing – particularly when it comes to harmonies. Rowen doesn't want to have yet another activity that they can't do together; so they'll get involved with doing the other activities during our services – like acting in the skits. Tim is good at hamming it up; so he should fit right in with the more overt actors in the group.

Why am I getting a mental picture of Tim in our Christmas show this year, but instead of three wise men; he's one of the wise-donkeys – if you know what I mean; and a la the Three Stooges.

That's a mental picture I'd like to get rid of before I fall asleep; so let's move along. Our evening music practice was fun, and while it almost felt as though Michael and I were starting from the beginning again with the other newbies; Stacey is also giving us more to do for the next service too. I have a couple of songs that I'll be playing keyboards for; and Michael will probably end up being the lead guitar for the group. He is the best, so nobody will be surprised about that; though Stacey is easing that change in to avoid upsetting any of the older teens. Since I'm mentioning Stacey now anyway, I've also heard that she's looking to start up a more regular children's music group this year. There has always been some form of children's choir here, but it hasn't been a regular event at church since before Mom and I moved here. The kids have mostly only done things around Christmas and Easter, and the occasional Sunday here and there. I think Stacey wants to have them do a song once a month this year; and use that to get the younger kids more involved in the church services.

I also mentioned Youth Group, and while Michael and I will join; actually doing most of the activities will be a problem for both of us – particularly during football season. We have so much on the go now that I have no idea how often we'll be able to go to the weekly meetings or the regular activities they have planned. We'll join in when we can, but there's only so many hours in a week; and we're both using up a lot of them already.

We still had our homework to do after the praise team practice, and we did that work in the dining room at his house. Miranda and Jacob spent some of that time talking with us, but then went into the living room to watch a little television before going to bed. I went home as soon as we had our assignments finished; did the bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana; and Mom worked through another long Magi lesson with me after we tucked the twins into their beds for the night. That's why it was heading toward midnight before I even got started on my bedtime studies and family business work; and it's past three o'clock now.

There really isn't anything to add from all of that work, though if you're really, really bored; you're welcome to read up on my family business exploits elsewhere – like in the financial reports; if you have access to that section of the archives. I do appreciate the rising numbers in all of the right places on those financials; but it's what we can do with that money that is most important to us. I'm too tired to get into any of that right now either, and would rather spend some quality time with Michael in dreamland anyway; so I'm just going to wrap this up and do that.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

It rained off and on today, so Tai Chi was indoors; Michael stayed for breakfast; and then we eventually met up with Rowen and Rebecca and went to school. There's absolutely nothing news-worthy to report from our classes or lunch break, and though we had a pretty good day; it just wasn't that exciting. The boys had a bit more rain to deal with during their football practice, but Dani had us do our cheerleading practice indoors. We were finished that fairly quickly today, so Rowen and I didn't wait for the boys; since she wanted to put some time in at the store and Michael was going to be going straight to the Inn to help out there after his practice anyway.

While my friends were busy anyway, I made this a work night; and being able to apply a little Magi power to my studying and work allowed me to get a lot done. My only work breaks were for dinner; to spend a little time with Ethan and Ehlana at their bedtime; and for Mom's Magi lesson with me. The rest of the time, I was in hyper-work mode; which is why I'm going to be sleeping before eleven o'clock tonight – if I wrap this up soon and get to that.

Oh, look at the time! Gotta go!

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

I've been trying not to write about global events in my journal, but there's a lot going on in the world; and the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11 has had a lot of people worried about terrorism.

Instead of getting into a political commentary that would surely get a lot of people mad if I actually wrote about my thoughts on current 'western' international policies; I'll instead made a few points that relate to us locally. The first, obvious fact about our little town is that it is not going to be on the top ten hit list for the Islamic State or any other terrorists. If, by some wild twist of fate, a terrorist got lost and ended up in Witch Falls, should he or she decide to try anything; I'm fairly sure that the Magi in town – including four Magi Masters – can handle anything they try to throw at us. So much of what I read during my nightly computer checks only proves that the terrorists behind 9/11 and other attacks have accomplished their goals – probably beyond their wildest dreams.

For the Magi of the Light reading this in my future, if the Ascension of the Light hasn't happened yet, it is coming; so don't waste time being afraid. The good guys are going to win – and it won't happen through the use of the air, sea, or land power of the armies of the world. They're all part of the problem; not the solution. If you doubt me, you are reading this in my future – how well are things working out so far in Iraq, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Ukraine, and the dozens of other problem spots around the world from my today? I'll be happy to apologize if the Ascension of the Light hasn't happened by whenever you're reading this; and the world has somehow managed to find universal peace and harmony.

Okay, let's move on to the daily life part of the update before I change my mind and go on that little diatribe that's just bubbling up inside of me right now.

Tai Chi by the river this morning was positively chilly by comparison; and I'd really like our summer back now, thank-you very much. If the forecast ends up being accurate for tomorrow; I'll be wishing that even more by game time. We could have rain and temperatures as low as the upper-forties. Vanessa and Nora may be thanking Rowen and me by next week if we don't start getting any nice-weather game days.

It was sunny today, but definitely felt more like fall than summer. Dani had us do our lunchtime cheerleading workout outdoors; but I didn't really spend much more time outside because Rowen and I did our homework at the computer store after school while the boys were busy; and then Michael and I were at the Inn for dinner and game night. I helped out in the kitchen while Michael needed to do his homework; we had dinner together along with Rebecca; and then Michael and I won the junior championship tonight.

I went home with Mom, Dad, and the twins right after the gaming was over; and have pretty much been busy since then. Mom did my Magi lesson first because Ethan and Ehlana wanted to do some work on their college courses before going to bed. I took care of getting them tucked in for the night while Mom and Dad both kept working in the office; and I've spent the last three and a half hours working on my computer while cuddling in bed with Mandy.

It's going on two-thirty now, and we're going to have a long day including the travel time to Meadowvale and back for the game; so I'll just wrap this up now and be grateful for the extra half-hour or so of downtime.

May the Magi Force be with you!

P.S. There really are serious dangers in the world, and I know that personally on a level that no 'normal' people would even believe; but I'd also like to point out that there were no terrorist attacks in Witch Falls today – or anywhere in America, Europe, or any of the 'power' countries of the world. All of that fear and worry time could have been put to much better use – not to mention all of the money and resources being devoted to 'keeping us safe'.

***

Sorry – a bit of that diatribe apparently escaped anyway!

;^)

Friday, September 12, 2014

It's Friday night, and time for the weekly high school football report!

Our Ridge River Raiders were visiting Meadowvale today, and though we only had a small group of supporters at the game; they were vocal and had a lot to cheer about. I hadn't been to Meadowvale before now, and while it is only about forty miles east of here, it's fifteen miles out on the other side of the highway up to Crystal Springs and a bit south; so I've only passed near it on any of my limited travels since moving here. It is a mice place from what I saw while we were there, and reminded me that I really do need to find some time some day to get to know my neighbors better.

Going to our first away game as cheerleaders has been quite an adventure; starting with the need to load up and head out shortly after we were finished school for the day. We had to get all of our gear together first, and then we had two volunteer drivers with minivans to take us to Meadowvale while our football team had to make the trip in a school bus to have room for all of their gear and supplies. We – the cheerleaders – had extra spots in those minivans; so Rebecca hitched a ride with Jenny so that she could go to the game too. That's something that Jason Johnson noticed right away and wasn't happy about; since Rebecca had never been interested in doing that during the month or so that they'd dated last fall. Lucas had been thrilled, though; and made sure that Rebecca knew how much he appreciated her support.

Before I get to the game report, I'll also mention that Vanessa came to the game too. There must be some entertaining scenes going on with the Sparks and Reynolds families – particularly since Paul's father is one of our teachers. I will guess that Vanessa must have decided that she really likes Paul to ask for a ride to the game with his father – particularly since he had been going to the game with Paul's and Vanessa's younger brothers. Mr. Sparks occasionally seemed to be amused with the situation while we were all at the game; but he also seemed to be happy to see Paul and Vanessa attracted to each other. Teen drama can make life very interesting, and I can tell you for sure that even a few weeks ago; I wouldn't have ever pictured Rebecca and Vanessa sitting together with some of the other player girlfriends at an away football game while Rowen and I were busy cheering for our team with the rest of the squad.

Then again, when Rowen and I were getting ready to try out for the cheerleaders; we also didn't think about what that would be like when it's cool and damp like it was tonight – though at least we didn't actually have any rain falling during the game. It's not as though we didn't know there would be cold, wet games – it's just that we didn't expect that to be an every week thing for either rain or cold. At this rate, we'll have snow games by mid-October!

I really don't want to go there, so let's move on to the game news. We won the game convincingly by a score of sixty-one to forty. As with our first two games, Meadowvale was not ready for a team that was offense-centric instead of defensive; and they were unable to adjust to defending against Michael and Tim in particular. That's why they had five of our seven touchdowns along with some other big plays while Caleb picked up the other two touchdowns after the adjustments that the Meadowvale coaches did make just opened up the run game for us. We only kicked field goals on our last four drives to keep the score from getting even more lop-sided; but also kept at least that twenty-one point lead for safety.

Being at an away game meant dealing with some things that were new to Rowen and me – with one of the biggest being the attention from a lot of local guys that Michael and Tim did not appreciate at all. It's not as though I haven't noticed the guys at home taking an avid interest in the visiting cheerleaders at our home games, but it's a lot different to be the object of that interest. Jenny and some of the other girls love the attention while Rowen and I didn't really like it at all. That meant having to smile and be enthusiastic and happy while deflecting the unwanted flirting and even a couple of fairly crude offers. For me, it was even stranger thanks to being able to hear and see more than the other girls can. Even the empathic vibes can be overwhelming with big crowds – especially in high-emotion situations like sports events can be.

While dealing with that was the most obvious teen weirdness tonight, there were other things that will take me some time to get used to – like using change rooms and showers at other schools. For that, I'll readily admit to being spoiled. Our school is comparatively new, and our facilities are modern and kept sparkling clean. That's definitely not the case at other small town schools, and while Jenny assured us that Meadowvale was actually better than most, and it was clean enough; it was also a sixty or seventy-year old building that reminded me too much of certain kinds of teen movies from decades past and had me looking around for peep holes in the shower room.

Yeah, I know, but in this day and age with cameras on phones and social media; a girl can't be too careful. For the record, there weren't any; but I did notice several wall repairs that strongly suggested that there had been a few in the past – though I wouldn't be able to tell you how long ago without more study than I could do without being obvious. One other thing that was different tonight but unrelated to the novelty of being at another school was that the shower time was needed to help us get warm again as well as to clean up after hours of exertion on the sidelines. I can tell you that we were all glad to be going home in minivans instead of a drafty school bus, though if the guys minded doing that; they didn't complain about it to anyone tonight.

It was late by the time we got back to the school, and Rowen and I stayed and helped with both our gear and the football equipment too before having our boys walk us home. We didn't hang out together, but while Rowen and Tim did their own thing; Michael stayed with me and we had a bakery bedtime snack and cups of hot chocolate; cuddled on a sofa in the living room for a while; and then he went home to get some sleep while I came up to my room to get started on my bedtime computing.

That was more than two hours ago, and while I could do more work; I'm just too tired to do anything else tonight. Dad's in the city next week, and has a lot to do to get ready for that this weekend; so I'm going to be doing more of the chores tomorrow to help him out. While that isn't going to be particularly exciting, Michael's going to be busy too; and I really don't mind helping Mom and Dad – especially since I'm not helping out as much as I should during the week when I'm busy with everything else I have on the go right now.

Anyway, I really have had enough fun for the day, and am ready for some nap time; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Karla!

Other than dropping off a gift for her – and Rowen took care of that for us – I wasn't involved at all in Karla's big day. She had a girlfriends day in the city to celebrate; but Rowen and I were not on the guest list.

I'm sure that their day was more fun than mine; though Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had some fun tonight. I'll get to that soon; but let's cover the other news from today first.

It was way too close to freezing out this morning for my liking – particularly since it's only mid-September. Having a nice, sunny day didn't even help to warm things up all that much; and that made for a very chilly yard work day for me. Tai Chi this morning was indoors because of the cold, and then Michael was off and running for the day – going to help out at the Inn right away and then splitting his time between there and doing chores at home. I worked in the yard for most of the day; and only stopped when it was time for me to hit the shower and get ready to go over to Rowen's house.

I can't take credit for that plan, since it was Mom and Dad's friends who decided that they should have a kid-free night ahead of Dad's week in the city. Ethan and Ehlana are with Aiden and Naomi tonight while I'm with Rowen. I didn't need to be there until after the computer store was closed for the night; and then Rowen and I helped with making dinner for seven – including Tim and Scott. Michael was still at the Inn then; but he came over once they'd closed for the night too.

Patrick and Scott had wanted Tim to play video games with them after dinner, and while he did that until Michael joined us; they voted with Rowen and me for watching a movie after that. It's nice to know that cuddling with girlfriends wins out over video gaming and junior peer pressure now and then! ;^)

Though they razzed Michael and Tim about picking chicks over the gaming, Patrick and Scott still stayed in the living room and watched the movie with us – and with Owen and Patricia. That didn't exactly make for a romantic evening for us; but we had fun and enjoyed a half-decent action movie that didn't require any thinking at all. After doing yard work all day, that was exactly what I needed – a couple of hours to cuddle with Michael and just veg out.

Since I'm doing a sleepover, I'm skipping the studying and work tonight; but have done the rest of my nightly computer checks and one quick little family business job that popped up in my email. Michael and Tim stayed for nearly an hour after the movie ended, and Patricia made sure that we got to spend that time without younger boys or parents in the living room with us. We were able to have a nice little chat while continuing our cuddle time; but that wasn't a make-out opportunity either – though one out of four of us wouldn't actually have a problem with public make-out sessions.

Sorry about your luck, Tim; but the rest of us are mostly fun to be around except for that one, prudish little flaw in our characters.

Rowen and I did split up to do the goodnight kisses with our respective boyfriends; and then we came up to her room and got ready for bed. I haven't done a lot of sleepovers at Rowen's lately, and while I don't miss the goofiness; it does feel a bit strange to actually get through a night there without Patrick and Scott pulling their pranks or practical jokes anymore. That lack of drama also means that Rowen and I get through our girl chat time much faster; and that's why it's only a bit after one as I write this.

It isn't quite as cold out tonight, if only by a bit compared to last night; but it is supposed to start warming up again tomorrow. Since I'm going to be helping out at the Inn for the buffets, and we have homework to do tomorrow afternoon during Michael's break; I don't expect to be outside much to enjoy the weather. We will still manage to have some fun, though, and as I've mentioned; it's the least Michael and I can do to make up for what we're not able to do right now during the week while we're busy with football, cheerleading, band, and the teen praise team.

Just thinking about all of that has me feeling sleepy, and that's all I have tonight anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Michael came over to Rowen's house for Tai Chi; breakfast with the Emersons was awesome; and we had a good morning at church. Ethan, Ehlana, and I did the overnight report with Mom and Dad during lunch; and they not-so-suspiciously had absolutely nothing kid-rated to tell us about their night while we were away having fun with our friends.

Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I did our homework this afternoon while Michael was on an extended break so that he could do that; and then he and I spent the rest of the day helping out with the dinner buffets. Mom, Dad, and the twins came to the late buffet with most of our home town family, but I kept working instead of having dinner with them; and I stayed until the clean-up was well underway.

When I got home, I did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; Mom spent an hour working with me on transmutation; and then I spent some quality time with my Jacuzzi while multi-tasking my studies, work and nightly computer checks. I did all of that in a time-phase; which is why I can be writing this by shortly after eleven even with getting all of that work finished. That use of power has drained me quite a bit, though; so I really need to keep this short and get some sleep.

With that in mind, and because I'll need to be up early to see Dad off on his trip to the city, I'll do a college teen update tomorrow night; and there isn't really anything else all that noteworthy to report for today anyway. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, September 15, 2014

I was up early this morning to see Dad off on his trip to the city, and then Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I had a nap together before waking again and meeting Michael for Tai Chi by the river. While that made for a nice, relaxed start to the day; I've been very busy since then.

The Grade Nine teen news today was topped by the flash report that Marcie and Marc have gotten together. While they're not on the official couples club rolls yet; the consensus among the girls is that it's a done deal with just the first date needed to meet the minimum requirements. They're happy right now, but if I'm being honest about it; they're not a pairing that makes sense to me unless their only goal is to not be starting high school as singles.

It was a busy but not particularly exciting day on the class work side of things, and while it hasn't returned to summer-hot kind of weather; it was nice enough out to have lunch outdoors and then sit around and watch the boys play football. You'd think that Tim would be getting enough of that by now; but apparently there's no such thing as too much football.

Cheerleading practice after school was fun, and Dani had us putting together yet another new half-time routine. We shouldn't need many more of them to have enough to get through the rest of the season if we use each of them for one home and one away game – at least until and if we make it into the post-season. We were finished out workout before the boys were, but since I was having dinner and spending the evening with Michael at his house; we sat in the bleachers and worked on our homework for a while until he and Tim were finished their practice. They'd needed to hit the showers too; but then Michael took me home while Rowen took Tim home with her.

Dinner with Michael and his family is always awesome; and Jacob was doing some experimenting that made the meal an adventure for us. Since we'd been busy before dinner, Michael and I were on the clean-up crew; and then we sat at the dining room table with Rebecca and did our homework. Rebecca had some news today too. She's going to be helping out with the school newsletter and yearbook; and one of her jobs is going to be sports reporting. That conveniently gives her an excuse to go to all of the football games now; and she's probably going to hitch rides with us – the cheerleaders – for all of the away games.

It didn't take too long to get our assignments finished, and then Michael and I had some music play time in his room. We worked on our music class and band music first; practiced for the praise team after that; and then did a guitar lesson. Once all of that was done, we happily practiced rests for twenty minutes or so before ending my evening at his house with a little cuddle time and chat with Miranda and Jacob.

I was home by ten; helped to get Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night; we had a chat with Dad while doing that; and then Mom did a Magi lesson with me before sending me off to bed at a quarter to twelve. It's been all work and studying since then; and now I am totally baked and ready to crash for a few hours. The language studying is going great; the archive assignment that Mom gave me was a serious snooze-fest; and the family business work was all Christmas-related for some of my retail companies. It's actually a bit late in the business planning cycle for that; but there's a good chance that I'll need to do more of that kind of work this year thanks to a lot of uncertainty with shopping forecasts this year.

Going into any details for that is way too boring – especially when I'm this tired. I did promise a college teen update, though; so I'd better do that before wrapping this up.

Violet and Dillon are having an interesting start to their sophomore year. They both have new roommates in their dorms; and quite a few of their freshmen friends are either out or basically starting over. They don't think the second part of that is actually a bad thing, since they do still have the best members of their study group; but getting used to new roommates isn't much fun for them so far. At least this will be the last year they'll need to do that.

Note to me – start working on a plan to avoid living in dorms and have it set up by spring twenty-eighteen!

Jake and Stephanie are having a smoother start to their school year; but that's mostly because their schedules work out better this semester and they can spend more time together on one campus or the other – or somewhere in between. There are fewer drop-outs in Jake's program, so he has most of his friends still there. Stephanie has a smaller sophomore class, but she's enjoying the smaller class sizes. The big news for them, though, is the possibility that they'll get to study in Europe during their Junior year. Jake's probably a lock for one of the culinary school exchange programs; so Stephanie just needs to work out a deal too. The cost of doing that will be a bit scary, but Jake really wants to go for it; and it'll be a chance of a lifetime for them. The only part of that plan that I won't like will be having them gone for an entire school year; since coming home for holidays will not be an option for them.

Finally, Christina and Josiah are keeping busy, and they're both starting to have some classes specific to their planned future careers in pharmacy and optometry. Christina hasn't sent many updates to me yet; so all I really have to add to that is they're happy and glad to be back at school. I really hope that's only because they're enjoying the academic challenges more than their summer jobs at the Emporium and bank! Maybe we'll need to find something more interesting for them to do starting next year – like maybe have them help out with getting the new medical center set up and running.

I'll mention that at our next future plans meeting, but it is past-time for me to go into nap mode now; so I'm out of here.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

It's micro-update time!

Tai Chi, breakfast, school – check!

Noon cheerleading practice, after school band practice, evening teen praise team practice – check!

Dinner at home with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana without Michael – check!

Post-practices Magi lesson after tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night – check!

Bedtime study and work for three and a half very tiring hours – check!

Journal update complete for the day – check!

Junior Magi Master of the Light in unconscious mode – pending and imminent!

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

What a difference a day makes – and yet some things stay the same!

Last night, the micro-report was due to extreme fatigue. Today, it's because I really don't have much to report. Nothing noteworthy happened at school; cheerleading practice was uneventful; and I spent the rest of the evening working and studying at home except for a dinner break with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana. Thanks to a little Magi-powered help; I'm also finished everything and ready to go to bed before ten o'clock!

Whatever will I do with all of that extra nap time?

Let's find out!

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Michael and I were not able to defend our junior game night championship tonight, but fortunately for our families; our Moms were able to team up and win the senior championship instead.

That, by the way, is pretty much the only exciting thing that happened in my day. We had fun; but it was also just another busy school day. For me, the addition of game night to the schedule meant a return to a late work night.

Since it is really late, I guess this is going to be a third short update in a row; but I'm actually okay with a little less excitement for a few days. With another away game tomorrow, that's bound to change heading into the weekend; which is also why I'd better get started on my nap now.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Happy 1st Birthday, Eli!

It's hard to believe that Naomi's little brother is already one, but he's there now; and that means that Zack's first is just around the corner.

Memo to me – stop in and see Zack sometime before he's ready to start college! ;^)

I didn't get to see Eli today, but Ethan and Ehlana took care of getting our gift to him while I was busy with school and the football game. For the second half of that action, the good news is that we've had an awesome, warm, and beautiful weather day that almost felt like summer again! The bad news is that our football team might need cold or rainy weather to get the wins.

I don't actually think that was the case today, but our team did get a reality check today – along with our first loss of the season.

Our first loss in seventeen games.

As you can guess, Tim was gutted, but he really shouldn't be. He played a really good game; and so did Michael and Caleb. What neither team had much of tonight was anything resembling a defense. We were playing Hillcrest, and while their team was better-prepared to take advantage of our defense without Kyle; they weren't ready for our new offensive capabilities. Basically it was a shootout tonight; and Hillcrest beat us sixty-six to fifty-nine. Each team only had to settle for a field goal once, and while they also each had two defensive turnovers; that was pretty much it for the defensive side of the game.

Losing the game wasn't so hot for our team, but Rowen and I had fun right up until that point of the night. Michael and Tim each had two touchdowns and were in on quite a few big plays; and Michael added a defensive pick for a touchdown. That play was also the last time that Hillcrest tried to throw a long ball to Michael's side of the field; but he couldn't do anything about the way the Hillcrest quarterback and runners picked apart the middle of our defense tonight. I don't want to drag out the pain of the night for anyone who is on the team now and might be reading this in the future; so let's just say that our team has some work to do and leave it at that.

We are still three and one on the season; and for those people with short memories; that would have been a dream start to the season just a couple of months ago. Maybe reality is finally setting in.

Hillcrest is about an hour and a half east of here, so it was after midnight by the time we got home again. That didn't leave us any time to party or hang out with our boyfriends – at least for Rowen and me. Some of the older teens still had late night plans. For Michael and I, though, once we'd finished helping to put our collective gear away; he walked me home and we did our goodnight hugs and kisses on the front porch before he went home and I came up to bed.

I've been working on my computer since getting ready for bed and snuggling with Mandy; but there isn't anything interesting to report from my studies or work. I should mention that there was some more off-field action to report from the game.

First up, Rebecca came to the game with us again; and already has her game report for the school newsletter posted on the school website. For her first sports news effort, I'd say she did a great job – and I'm sure there will be several guys who will be glad that she didn't mention any of the details about the blown plays on defense. She also toned down how well her brother played; so I don't feel too bad about talking that up in my journal – since he was one of the best players on the field today.

On the teen drama front, Vanessa came to this game too; and I'd say that she's officially caught her man. While I'm glad that they're so blissfully happy right now; I won't comment on how Paul's game play went tonight. Jenny didn't have her new boyfriend at the game, and the lack of male companionship made her the favorite cheerleader on our squad for the Hillcrest local boys. That isn't to say that the rest of us didn't get attention too because we did; but Michael and Tim in particular decided to take matters – and Rowen and me – into their hands to make sure that the other guys at the game knew we were not available.

Rowen and I didn't have a problem with that plan – or the bonus hugs and kisses.

I don't know how Lance would feel about having other guys hitting on Jenny; but then I doubt he'll find out. For her part, while Jenny seemed to enjoy the attention a lot, she also talked about Lance with us a lot too; so she isn't actually looking to replace him or anything. They have another date tomorrow; she's pretty sure he'll be at our home game next Friday night; and they're making plans for the fall festival already too, so I'd say they're getting serious – or at least Jenny is.

For such a busy day, this doesn't feel like much of an update, but that is pretty much it for the newsworthy action. Dad got home in decent time tonight, but there wasn't a dinner and a movie night because Mom was just ready to have a quiet night after her own busy week juggling everything from the work around the house to long days at the lab and teaching the college classes for Ethan and Ehlana. They were all in bed by the time I got home, so I'll get their Friday reports in the morning sometime. It's after three again tonight, though, and it's going to be another yard work day tomorrow; so I'm just going to wrap this up and join Mandy for a little cat nap.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

I'm going to start this update with the news that Rebecca is staying overnight at Lucas' house for the first time. That's exciting for both of them, but as I think about it; I'm a little surprised that she hasn't stayed out there before now when you consider how many sleepovers and camping nights he's done with us since they started dating.

The special occasion for the sleepover tonight is actually Lucas' birthday tomorrow; and Rebecca won't be helping out at the Inn tomorrow – which is why I will be there instead; and Michael and I won't be at Lucas' party. They're having dinner at one of the buffets tomorrow as part of the fun; but other than taking a break in time for the cake and ice cream; Michael and I will miss out on that too.

Now that I think about it; my entire weekend is mostly about work. Today it was yard and house chores between lunch and a late dinner; and tomorrow it'll be helping out at the Inn for both the lunch and dinner rushes while Rebecca is busy. I've done my studies and family business work tonight after climbing into bed with Mandy; and will do the same tomorrow night after getting home from the Inn.

The good news is that Michael, Tim, Rowen and I got together to watch a movie in the lounge tonight after Michael was finished at the Inn; so there was at least those couple of hours of fun. That was actually another first. Not the actual hanging out in the lounge – the first movie night the four of us have done by ourselves since school started three weeks ago.

Can you believe that? Just how busy are we that there isn't even time to hang out; watch a movie; and have fun with our best friends?

What's also hard for me to believe is that I'm writing this and have come to the point yet again where there isn't really anything else to add to the report. I seriously doubt that will last much longer, but even though I don't have a lot of amazing news to write about; I'm certainly not bored either.

I am tired now, so since there isn't anything else to add tonight; I'm out of here.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Happy 15th Birthday, Lucas!

While I haven't had a chance to talk with Rebecca about it yet, it was obvious from their smiles when we saw them this morning at church that they'd had fun hanging out together last night at his house; and I'm also sure that he's had a happy birthday today too.

Before I get to the main news for today, though; I have a couple of 'house-keeping' notes to make.

First up, I was again reminded this morning that football is supposed to be the single most important activity going on in the entire world every fall – especially in Witch Falls. If you're shocked by this revelation; don't be – it's the world according to the fourteen-year old version of Tim Landry. Since Rowen and I are now cheerleaders for the team; we are apparently supposed to follow all football games at all levels of the sport so that we can keep up-to-date on the latest developments. Sure, that isn't very difficult for me to do when I can read all of that news online in moments if I want to; but the point here is that I once again failed to make Kyle's football game yesterday a priority chat topic this morning – or last night when we were hanging out together in the lounge.

Funny, Tim didn't seem to mind so much while we were watching our movie and he was cuddling with Rowen. Then again, if was too busy thinking about college football and how Kyle's freshman season is going so far instead of enjoying the moment; we ought to book an appointment for a mental-health check-up for him at the clinic.

So, for the record; here's the Kyle Landry update. His team lost again; they don't seem to have a very good offense, if the stats I've read are any indication; and Kyle is continuing to impress with some big plays. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have enough help on the line; so their opponents can work with other plays away from him a lot of the time. His personal stats are best in the first quarter, but we'll see how long that lasts before other teams start avoiding him right from the beginning of the game instead of testing him. That would likely bug some guys who'd like to test their skills against Kyle; but they ought to just thank their coaches for saving them the pain and recovery time. I'm sure there are guys who can play at Kyle's level; but I'll also guess that they'll be the ones hurting at the end of the match.

Okay, moving along; the next comment I wanted to included tonight is about Mom and Dad. He was in the city all week, and she was busy with everything that she has going on; but I've barely mentioned them in my journal lately. That isn't because I'm oblivious or anything – I'm mostly just not bothering to duplicate news reports that they keep up with in their own journals and other archive contributions. That said, I should write more about all of us; and haven't been. That isn't due to not spending any time together – it's because most of what we do together is just every day stuff; and that'd be a snooze-fest to include with every daily report.

For instance, do you, future reader, really care about the specific chores that Dad and I worked on together yesterday? We talked and had fun, but on my side of that; we discussed what I'd been doing all week – the highlights of which I'd already written about each night. It would be pointless to write about all of that again; and ditto that for his side of the weekly report. If you care for other details; I can tell you that I shared an average of six-point-two hugs and four-point-four kisses with my parents, brother, and sister yesterday. Again, I didn't note that because that's an everyday kind of thing – we're a very hugs and kisses kind of family. I love them; we always have fun together; but most of our daily news is just ordinary stuff that won't end up in these updates.

Time to move on with the rest of the story.

Tai Chi by the river was a nice way to start the day; I had breakfast at Michael's; and we both loved getting to have that quality time with just us and his parents. We walked to church with both families; enjoyed the service and Sunday school; and then went straight to the Inn. As with what I just wrote about; there isn't much to report about from my afternoon and evening there. Michael and I had fun with his parents and everyone else who was working there today; but nothing particularly exciting happened from our end of things. We helped out all day, and other than some short breaks here and there; you really don't want the boring veggie-peeling; dish washing details.

Lucas and Rebecca had way more fun, but the only direct involvement for Michael and I with that was when we took a break so that we could do the cake and ice cream with them – and the rest of the party guests. Yes, we'd been invited; but Miranda and Jacob can't let everyone have the day off for every teen event in town or they'd never be able to keep the Inn running. Sometimes that sucks; but they do always try to be fair – and in this particular case; the girlfriend of the birthday boy did get priority time off.

By the way, Lucas will get to take the test for his driver's license tomorrow; but he isn't actually all that excited about it; since he has been able to drive vehicles and equipment on the farm for quite a while now. Adding in some parent-supervised trips to and from town just isn't that big of a deal to him. I'll guess that won't be the same when he can take the next level in a year and gain transportation freedom. He and Rebecca are both looking forward to that day.

So, Michael and I helped to get one lunch and two buffet sittings dealt with at the Inn; we stayed until all of the work was done; and then we went home. I did the goodnight hugs and kisses with him on his front porch because we were both tired out by then; and falling asleep on the sofa was way too tempting when I still had too much work to do when I got home. Ethan and Ehlana had been up working on their college studies when I got back, but after exchanging news reports; I helped to get them ready for bed and tucked in for the night. Mom and I did a Magi lesson in the Sight after that; we had another little chat with Dad; and then we all came up to our rooms. We all got ready for bed; and then they decided to have fun while I got to work on my studies and family business work. Use your imagination for what they were doing if you must; but I'm not going there.

For my work, there isn't anything earth-shaking to write about. The language studies always seem to go well now that I pretty much work on them the same way every time; and the family business action was all report-reading and about as boring as it gets. The archive assignment that went with my lesson tonight was actually pretty good; and I'm going to talk about it with Ethan and Ehlana sometime this week; since there were some interesting ideas there that we might be able to take to the next level when we use the Sight together.

Lastly, I had my usual weekly college updates in my email inbox tonight; so let's do a quick update for that. Violet and Dillon have both been busy with their classes and studies; but took Saturday night off to go to a party with some friends. That's apparently easier for them this year, but they have friends they trust; and are careful to watch out for each other. With some of the stories we hear, I'm doubtful that I'll ever find the college party scene anything I'm interested in when it's my turn to go to college; but I'm glad that they had fun – and didn't have any problems.

Jake and Stephanie had a weekend sleepover at an undisclosed location – so possibly an off-campus friend's home instead of a hotel. There were no additional details; so again; you'll have to use your imagination. I'm not going to go there – and not just because Michael and I haven't exactly had much in the way of alone time opportunities lately.

We should definitely do something about that soon! ;^)

That didn't happen tonight, though; it's late; and I'm way beyond tired out now, so it's time to wrap this up and get on with some quality nap time. There isn't anything extra going on over the next few days; but there could be a weekend trip in my near future. I should have more details on that soon; so I'll keep you posted when details become available.

Okay, I'm done now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Let's start this update with the finalized travel weekend plans that Mom and Dad have set up for us; since that's the best news I had today.

We're going to get up very early Saturday morning; drive to Granite Park; and help Jaimie to celebrate her ninth birthday. After spending the day with her – and the rest of our family and some of her friends – we're going to stay overnight at a hotel; and then head for Crystal Springs in the morning so that we can celebrate Valerie Malloy's second birthday with Terry, Angela, and their family and friends. The very best part of that news was finding out that Michael was getting the weekend off so that he can go along with us – sort of an early birthday gift from his parents.

Before you take that train of thought too far, though; I'll mention right now that Michael and Ethan will be in one room while Ehlana and I are in another one for the hotel sleepover part of the adventure. The happy birthday make-out session will have to wait for Sunday or Monday night.

It's been a really long day; so I'd better not go there and just get this written so that I can move on to nap time.

While the weekend trip news was awesome; we packed a fair bit of fun into our day – including a bit of minor make-out time for Michael and me before I went home from spending the evening at his house. It was a cool morning for Tai Chi by the river, but we just dressed warm; and will keep exercising by the river as long as we can. The rest of my pre-school morning was standard issue with cereal for breakfast and the usual running around to grab a shower and get ready for the day. We're pretty much into the daily routine at school, and while there isn't anything exciting to report from our classes; we are getting into a round of tests and quizzes now that we have a few weeks of lessons under out collective belts.

A nice weather day meant football at lunchtime for the guys and sitting out on the bleachers to watch them for the girls. While I'm not going to get into any major football discussions today; I will report that our guys didn't take any heat today from anyone after losing the game last Friday. I can also report that they put in extra work at practice because Coach Robinson was not happy with our lack of defense even if he was fired up about how well our offense is doing. I won't be doing daily updates on how that goes; so we'll find out on Friday night whether the changes they're making will help or not.

For our cheerleading practice, Dani had us work on a new half-time routine for the game; and we're having lots of fun doing that. YouTube is a great resource for coming up with new ideas, and while I'm not doing much of that side of the work; Dani is getting me to mix the music on my computer to get the tracks for our routines. As always, we were finished our practice first, so Rowen and I sat in the bleachers and watched the rest of the football practice while doing a bit of homework and chatting with some of the other girlfriends.

I went home with Michael for dinner; had fun with Rebecca and their parents while enjoying another experimental entree; and then it was teen clean-up time before we moved on to get our homework out of the way. Once the real work was out of the way, Michael and I had a long music practice for music class, band, and the teen praise team; and then we wrapped up our evening with that minor make-out session in his room before I really needed to get home.

He was heading off to bed after that, but my night still had a long way to go – starting with getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night. Mom and I did a long Magi lesson after that doing a time-phase experiment; and I've been in bed and working on my computer since coming up to my room after that – and a little bedtime visit with Mom and Dad to talk about those weekend plans. The language and archives studies took two hours to finish; and then I spent another hour and a half on the family business. That was all a lot of work and not particularly exciting; so that's all I have for tonight.

My Tuesday is going to be even busier, and it will be starting in just a few hours; so it's time to go into nap mode while I can.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

It's micro-update time again – and heading toward four in the morning.

I had a really long, busy, mostly-fun day!

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The fall school routine is getting settled; and work night Wednesday is also apparently going to be my chance each week for an early bedtime. That's a really good thing after only getting a couple of hours of down time last night.

It's been raining off and on this afternoon and evening, so having a work night has been convenient for that too – though the guys would have preferred to stay dry during their football practice. I'm so glad that we have the option of doing our cheerleading practices indoors!

Since Michael, Tim, and Rowen were all busy after our cheerleading or football practices, I went straight home from the school; and got to work in the office. I actually made it home before Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana did, and since we didn't have any company around; using a little Magi power to help with my homework, studies, and family business work was an option.

I haven't really been writing much about the lab and what Ethan and Ehlana are doing there, though if you want all of the details; they're available in the lab research archive. Mom's continuing to give them cover for being there with her work on the computer systems there, and while that isn't just make-work; the real action is going on in the lab and Magi archives. Ehlana is having fun with Uncle Adam in the lab; and Ethan is enjoying his play time with the books and everything else coming in to him from the archives that Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor are shipping home – though they're not currently on a trip right now. They're spending some time in the archives with him; and officially have part-time jobs there now. Their next archive trip starts after the fall festival, and though that trip will only be until Thanksgiving; they'll be gone for a couple of months during the winter. That excursion coincidentally will be somewhere warm, but if I was planning those trips; I wouldn't be picking Norway in January and February either.

I'm not in the loop for any of that right now, though I might get involved at the lab now and then – especially if I need to do that to spend time with the twins; but that probably won't happen at least until after football season is over. It is a little funny that my toddler brother and sister seem to have a more exciting life right now than I do between their work at the lab and their college education; but I'm okay with the fun I do get to have – especially with Michael, Rowen, and Tim.

Okay, other than while we were at school, I didn't get to spend any time with them today while we all spent the evening working; but you know what I mean. I'm good with getting to at least pretend to be a 'normal' teenager for a few more years before it'll be time to do more. I'll leave the world-changing research and becoming the greatest historian and scholar ever to Ehlana and Ethan – even though most people will never know about them at all.

For me, right now, I'm going to put my computer away; go upstairs; and spend a little quality time in my Jacuzzi before getting a full night of rest for a change. Since the twins are still studying; maybe they'll even come and tuck me in for a change before going to bed too! ;^)

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

I'm back to having a late night again tonight; so this is going to be another short report.

There are no top news stories to write about, and while my lunchtime cheerleading practice and after-school and evening at the Inn were fun; the five hours of work and study I've been doing since getting home hasn't been quite as exciting.

Okay, the Magi lesson with Mom was pretty cool, and Ethan and Ehlana enjoyed the play time while doing their full bath and bedtime routine; but the family business work was particularly dull tonight.

I just finished doing that work; which explains why I'm so much more interested in getting started on my nap than I am about doing anything else – including writing this journal. With another big Friday night football game coming up; I really should get the sleep. It's hard to believe, but this game is the fifth already – and we'll be half-way through the regular season! The good news is that we're supposed to have great weather for game time; while the bad is that nice weather didn't work out so well for us last week. We'll see whether the practices this week have helped out with the problems in our defense.

Football will just be the start of the weekend fun with our trip to Granite Park and Crystal Springs – and two birthday parties to attend. Add in Michael's birthday on Monday; and we're going to have four really busy days – which is yet another really good reason for me to go into nap mode right now.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, September 26, 2014

This has been a fairly awesome day – and not just because Michael's staying here overnight; and we got to have some quality alone time before going to bed for the night.

No, not in the same bed; but I like the way you think! ;^)

I don't have anything particularly newsworthy to report from the school part of today; so let's go straight to the football news. We played Sweetwater Pond tonight, and thanks to a good game plan and on-field play; we're at the half-way point of the regular season with a four-one record! Our strategy was really basic – go with the ground game a lot; and eat up the time on the clock as much as possible to keep our defense off the field. The thirty-seven to twenty-four score suggested that worked; though I'll add that Sweetwater Pond doesn't have a stellar run-defense.

They probably felt pretty good about how that was going for them most of the evening because they did hold three of our drives to field goals while keeping the score close; but that was part of our plan too. Our twenty-three to seventeen lead went south for Sweetwater Pond very quickly thanks to two quick, long-ball touchdowns that Michael and Tim took turns scoring in the fourth quarter after basically being held back all game to that point with just quick, short passes. Within minutes, we were ahead by twenty points with only a few minutes left in the game; and Sweetwater Pond only managed one more touchdown before we were able to run out the clock on the ground.

I doubt we could pull that off against a better defense, but it worked tonight; and the guys are very happy. Make that over-the-top pumped up for Jason Johnson – and that got to be just a bit annoying for Michael and Tim after the game. Thanks to those field goals and four extra-points, and because Michael, Tim, Caleb, and Lucas each scored one of the touchdowns; J.J. was the top scoring player on the team tonight with thirteen points. I didn't really need any additional clues to know why Rebecca never really got involved with him, but since big egos are on the rare side in our little town; his example of one is glaring by comparison. The other guys probably won't say anything to him about it, but I can assure you that if Michael or Tim start getting big heads like that; Rowen and I will be happy to pop the bubbles and bring them back down to reality again.

Off the field, my favorite moments were with my family. They were having another dinner and a football game night; and Ehlana, Naomi, and Sophia ran around and pretended to be on our cheerleader squad for a while. The crowd loved that – especially when Erica led the way and had the three younger girls learn and do a couple of cheers with us. Mom and Sylvia let them play for about fifteen minutes; and then took custody of them again and they cheered from the stands with Aunt Leanne. On the teen front, Vanessa and Paul are officially dating now; and she and Nora are both happy because they get to hang out in the section with the player girlfriends – which means most of the 'cool' girls. Nora brought Elliott with her, and while he'd rather be playing football too; he didn't seem to mind hanging out with Nora and a gang of girls for the evening.

If you have to wonder why any teen guy would have fun hanging out with a bunch of girls wearing the shorts and tops appropriate for temperatures in the high eighties at game time; you're probably too old to remember what it's like to be fourteen – or life has changed a whole lot between now and whenever you're reading this in the future!

Moving along; the post-game celebration on the field was fun but not drawn out as everyone was ready to go somewhere else and have cold drinks or use other methods to cool off. For the football team and their friends; that wind down time meant another mini-party – this time at the Palmers; where hopping into the river for a swim definitely cooled you off fast. Michael and I went to the party too, but we didn't stay long because of our early-morning trip plans. We got razzed about why we were leaving early, and while we did have a valid reason to head home, the guys weren't totally wrong in their assumptions either; since we did have some fun once we were alone in the lounge and everyone else had gone to bed.

As always, I'm not going to go into the details of our play time, but we were overdue; clothing was optional; creative use of Magi power was involved; and the hot scale score was right up there with our personal best – top five for sure! ;^)

Going for another swim would have been a good idea to cool off again – if the party hadn't still been going on at Palmers when it was time for Michael to head downstairs to his room for the night; but we'd have never heard the end of it if we'd been caught doing that by the other teens. That might be funnier if I could suggest that Michael would have needed to do that without a swimsuit, but Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison, and Terry and Angela, have pools; so he did actually pack a couple of swimsuits for the weekend.

I know, Aunt Leanne – I don't necessarily need to let facts get in the way of a good story; but I remember too many other times where making jokes like that come back to bite you in the future. Mom certainly learned her lesson on that one thanks to you!

Anyway, I had a bit of work that needed to be taken care of while doing my nightly computer checks; but I didn't do any language or archive studying tonight. I should have been sleeping a couple of hours ago; but wouldn't trade the extra nap time for that awesome play time with Michael – and I can always nap during the trip to Granite Park if needed. Some minivan cuddle time with Michael sounds pretty good right now – though so does sneaking down to his room and climbing into bed with him right now.

Don't go there, Proctor – figuratively or literally! ;^)

Okay, that's it for tonight. My next update will be coming to you from a hotel room in Granite Park, and we'll be on the road heading that way in just a few hours; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Happy 9th Birthday, Jaimie!

My first thought with that is: wow! – I was her age when Mom and I came to Witch Falls. That seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time!

Jaimie was thrilled that we came to spend the day with her. Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace were there too; but they drove down after work yesterday and are spending the entire weekend in Granite Park. We left early this morning so that we could be there by mid-morning and spend the extra time with our family before the party started in the afternoon and we had to share them with the other party guests of all ages – including some of Aunt Alison's family. The trip was mostly uneventful, and other than a stop for breakfast at a roadside diner; we didn't have any delays at all on the roads.

Michael and I were on kid control pretty much from the time we got to Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison's house while Mom and Dad joined the work crew and helped with getting everything ready for Jaimie's party. We had a light lunch together at noon; and then Jaimie's guests began arriving by one o'clock. Kid control got a bit more adventurous for Michael and me then – not to mention a little weird for Michael. He had two of Jaimie's friends madly crushing on him within about two minutes of meeting him. Kaitlyn and Jayden thought all of that goofiness from Jaimie's friends was weird too, but Uncle Blaine and Ad thought it was funny and entertaining; and Aunt Alison and Mom thought that it was sweet – and entertaining. I'll personally have to admit that those little scenes were a bit of all of the above for me. I had fun, and Jaimie's friends all liked me too; but that was despite being 'the girlfriend' for those two love-struck friends. They really tried their very best not to like me.

Anyway, to keep the story moving along, we basically had a pool party all afternoon. In addition to Jaimie's friends, she had a fairly large family and adult friends turnout too; though quite a few of those guests were stop and go visits. Aunt Alison's family and a few of their best friends stayed for the pizza dinner too; but the rest of the guests mostly only stayed for an hour or less – unless they had kids along who went for a swim too while they were there. As I mentioned already, Michael and I were on kid control. During the afternoon, that mostly meant keeping Kaitlyn, Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana entertained, busy, and mostly out of the way so that Jaimie could have fun with her friends. Mixing that job with Jaimie's co-interest in hanging out with Michael and me didn't always work out; but that's when the parents jumped in and we switched from junior kid control to cool teen entertainers for the older girls.

While I'm still thinking about Jaimie's friends, I wanted to mention that Aunt Grace was very popular with them; and Jaimie's best friends are really close with her from all of the time they spent together when Aunt Grace still lived in Granite Park. They were very excited about her advanced stage of pregnancy; and were even willing to feel and listen to her stomach. They like Uncle Mark too, and think that it's cool that Jaimie's aunt married a doctor; but there weren't any crushes on him that I noticed. Maybe that's because he and Dad get compared to Uncle Blaine. None of the girls made it obvious; but I'd say that all of Jaimie's friends have had a crush on her father – and still do.

They've got great taste; but that's still more than a bit strange for any daughter to deal with. If you don't believe me on that; ask Rebecca about it sometime – or Jake's daughters; if he and Stephanie have any girls in the future.

That got off-track a bit. The swimming and play time was great this afternoon; and I especially loved the pizza party dinner. I don't really miss city life at all; but good take-out pizza is something I could get used to having at home fairly easily. It also reminded me of my first birthday party in Witch Falls; though I'm sure that dinner choice was just a coincidence – pizza is Jaimie's favorite take-out option. The pizza meal was followed by the usual cake and ice cream dessert, and while birthday gifts weren't that much different from home for nine-year old girls; there was one tiny little exception. Jaimie's top gift was a new iPhone that almost-literally had her girlfriends drooling.

Of course, they also thought that it was nuts that Michael and I didn't have cell phones at all; but I'm pretty much used to that reaction from my cousins' friends now.

After dinner, it was movie night time; so we piled into cars, minivans, and SUV's for the hop over to the movie theater. Michael and I did have the option to go and see something else, but we wouldn't have done that to Jaimie; and we had as much fun as everyone else did watching Dolphin Tale 2. The movie was okay; and the fun time with our family was really great – especially since our rare visits to a movie theater are a big deal for Ethan and Ehlana. Jaimie's friends found that just as amusing as Dawn's friends did when they met me, and while I really do like going to see movies on a big screen; I wouldn't trade that for what we do have back home.

Take-out pizza would be nice, though! ;^)

I skipped over the news that Mom ran over to our hotel this afternoon to get us checked in, but she did that while on an errand run with Aunt Grace anyway; so it wasn't really news. That did make the hotel end of our night easier; and that ended up being a really good thing when we added to sleepover guests to our plans at the last minute. Jayden practically begged Mom and Dad to let him stay the night with Ethan so he didn't have to be in a house full of girl germs. That was apparently a concept he's picked up from his little play buddies – and they apparently learn these things young in the city. I'm sure that you can guess the approval for his addition to our group led directly to having Kaitlyn come and spend the night with Ehlana and me in our room too – though that was a slightly tougher decision for her when it meant picking the hotel adventure over doing the sleepover with Jaimie and the older girls. It was actually a not-so-nice comment from one of Jaimie's friends that tipped the scale; but let's not go there. It was one tiny blip in an otherwise great day for Kaitlyn; and the girl probably didn't even realize she'd hurt Kaitlyn's feelings.

That did mean going back to the house so that Kaitlyn and Jayden could pack overnight bags; so we went for a quick bedtime swim with Jaimie and her friends too. We headed to the hotel right after that; went to our rooms; and Michael and I were kept busy getting our roommates ready for bed. Mom and Dad stopped in to say goodnight to all of us when we then got together in our room – the 'girls' room'; but then they were kid-free for the rest of the night.

Use your imagination – I don't plan on doing that; or writing any more about what my parents spent the rest of the night doing. Okay, only most of the rest of the night; but that's already too much information!

We were all together in this room because the boys came over to watch a movie with us. Yes, it was getting late, but you can't just go off to sleep right away while on a hotel adventure! That'd be a total waste – not to mention that Michael and I were okay with a little cuddle time while we watched a Disney movie that was toddler-rated. Jayden didn't last long before passing out; but Kaitlyn, Ethan, and Ehlana watched the entire show before Michael and I took Jayden and Ethan over to the other room; we only took time for a quick goodnight hug and kiss by the door; and then I wrapped up my day with some girl chat time with Kaitlyn and Ehlana until they fell asleep.

I needed to wait until Kaitlyn was out for the count before starting my nightly computing, and though I wasn't doing the full study and work thing; there were still some things that I needed to get done.

There isn't a lot of news from that to write bout here, but I did have an email from Violet with a report on her play day with Dillon and some friends. They went to their first Kansas State football game; and got to cheer their team on to a big fifty-eight to twenty-eight win. After looking up the stats on the game; it wasn't as close as even that score suggested – though I had Violet's details already to know that Kansas State had coasted to the end instead of going all out and embarrassing their opponent. In the world of college football, that seems to be getting very rare when teams worry more about rankings than good sportsmanship. I won't say that they did a great job of that, since the score was really ugly already before they let up and started kicking field goals; but let's give credit where it's deserved.

While we're on football anyway, I'd better report that Kyle's team lost another game this week; though Tim would have to wait until Monday to razz me about it if I didn't have that as my top chat topic before church or at Sunday school. Kyle is still doing pretty well; but it's also a safe bet that he won't have to worry about winning any national championships or bowl games with his team this season. Let's face it – they're lucky to have a player like him on the roster; and that really is because Kyle wanted to play for his father's college more than anything else he could have done with a top team.

I don't really want to talk football anymore, though, and it's getting late; so I'm going to wrap this up now. We'll be up early for breakfast – especially since we now need to drop Kaitlyn and Jayden off at home before heading for Crystal Springs. We're also going to miss going to church for a rare Sunday; but there just isn't time to get to the Malloy's house in time for the lunchtime birthday party if we stay and go to church in Granite Park. We are going to have a long day, though, so I'm going to put my computer to bed; cuddle with Ehlana; and get started on my nap. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Happy 2nd Birthday, Valerie!

Weekend party day two began without Tai Chi for the second day in a row; though that was mostly because we – the kids and teens – needed the extra time to get ready for the day and packed. Kaitlyn, Ehlana, and I took the most time; but I thought we did pretty well for getting through three showers; playing with our hair; and getting appropriately beautiful for a Sunday morning breakfast at a nice hotel restaurant.

The meal was a nice little break; and then we were on the go again – taking Kaitlyn and Jayden home and having a little visit with Uncle Blaine, Aunt Alison, Jaimie, and her friends before getting on the road for Crystal Springs. We made it to the Malloy's house by eleven o'clock; and had time for a little visit with them before the rest of their party guests began arriving shortly after noon. Once again, Michael and I were on kid control, but this time; it was a bit more work to keep up with Valerie and a handful of other toddlers – especially since several of them were full-on into the terrible-twos.

I am so glad that my little brother and sister are Magi Masters and didn't go through that stage – or if they did, it was prenatally; and would have lasted for a couple of days before they developed past that stage. I'm just kidding, guys – I know you didn't go through that; though it would be a funny story if you had.

Speaking of pre-natal; Angela is into her second trimester now; and glad to be mostly finished with the morning sickness and other early-pregnancy annoyances. Dealing with that, a toddler, and her job has apparently been interesting; but she assured us that she didn't throw up on anyone in her court room or let her raging hormones get in the way of her verdicts – no matter how tempted she was a few times to do just that. She is pretty sure that one guy in a divorce case might have caved in on a proposed support arrangement specifically because he was afraid of getting a worse deal from Angela after finding out that she was pregnant from his attorneys.

Oh, and yes, Mom and baby are doing just fine – Mom and I both checked.

This birthday party was definitely toddler-rated for fun, and I'm so glad that Angela and Terry have a pool too – we needed it just to help with keeping clean. Whether the mess was due to the games or food didn't really matter; since all of the dirt I picked up was due to toddler-transfer. I'll admit that Ethan and Ehlana had a tougher time today because they'd needed to play their own age, and since they aren't much older than Valerie; that meant intentionally getting messier than they normally would. Then they had to wait around for Mom, Dad, Michael, or me to clean them up; since doing that on their own would have been noticed by all of the parents and other adults too.

That was one thing that was exactly the same as yesterday – the guests. The only difference was that instead of having architects and socialites; we were surrounded by lawyers, judges, engineers, and construction workers – along with just a few socialites. Dad knew a lot of Angela's co-workers and friends, but while Mom had fun too; the shop talk wasn't nearly as interesting for her.

There was a social hour before lunch; Terry and Angela had help with everything from the grilling to getting the side dishes ready and tables set up in the back yard by the pool; and Michael and I kept the kids entertained. Getting them fed was a little scary – particularly the cake and ice cream dessert part of the meal. Not all of the toddlers could swim yet, but they were all stripped, wiped down, put into swimsuits, and dunked in the pool. I'm still glad that I dressed up this morning; but I also needed to use a little Magi-powered stain removal on my shirt after getting home tonight to get the chocolate and whatever else out of it before putting it in to the laundry with the rest of my weekend clothes.

After that pool time break; there were toddler games to play in the yard. Prizes were available; and every kid won at least two or three times – though some of the excuses for those wins needed to be fairly creative. The party started to wrap up at about the same time that Valerie decided to pass out for a late-afternoon nap. We needed to hit the road by then, so we packed up; left a goodbye video message for Valerie that Angela recorded for us on her phone; and then we hit the road again.

We got home in time to unload the minivan; put everything away; freshen up; and then head over to the Inn for the late buffet. We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, and our aunts and uncles – including Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace – and Michael stayed with us for that too. He had the night off because Monday is a normal day off for the family anyway; so this was his get-out-of-work day instead. I loved getting to end the weekend with that family and great food time; though the cuddle time with Michael after we went home again was nice too.

Mom and Dad both had work to do after dinner, so Michael and I watched a movie in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana; did the bedtime routine with them after that; and then Michael needed to leave – though a birthday sleepover was tempting. It's a good thing that he did go home, though, because I still had a lot of work to get done. Mom wrapped up her night with a Magi lesson for me while Dad finished his work in the office. They went to bed after that; and I came up to my room to multi-task some Jacuzzi time with my language and archives studies. Once I was tucked into bed with Mandy; it was time for the family business work; and the only reason it isn't five o'clock as I write this is because I used a little time-phasing both while I was in the tub and here in bed.

The physical drain is about the same, though, and I really want to be at full power for Michael's birthday; so I'm going to wrap this up and get some sleep.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, September 29, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Michael!

Our day started out with Tai Chi by the river and a birthday breakfast at Michael's house. That was a great start to his special day, but then we needed to rush around a bit to get ready for the day before meeting up with Rowen for the walk to school. Michael had some gifts to open too – including one each from my parents and the twins that he opened after Tai Chi; and from his parents and Rebecca while we had breakfast. Everyone did the best they could for him with that, but since he already has an amazing, billionaire Magi Master girlfriend; there really isn't anything else that he needs.

Just kidding! ;^)

We had a fairly entertaining day at school, and since Michael wasn't having a big party; some of our friends had gifts for him too. There was a little birthday party at lunch, and I had a box of Olde Bakery cupcakes miraculously appear for dessert, and that went over well with our friends; though I should have brought more – Michael is getting to be very popular with everyone at school now that he's on the football team. We've also had another beautiful day; so a lunchtime football scrimmage was required.

Coach Robinson didn't take it easy on Michael at football practice; and they barely finished in time for Michael, Tim, and Lucas to get home for dinner. Rowen and I went to help out there after our cheerleading practice; and Miranda and Jacob put us to work with Rebecca until the other guests began arriving. While Michael hadn't wanted to do a big friends party, Jacob and Miranda had invited the Bassett side of his family; so we still had a fairly busy couple of hours of fun and work.

While the dinner, dessert, and the usual birthday action was entertaining; we needed to get back to the real world after dinner. That meant doing our homework while the adults took care of the cleanup or took younger kids home for the night. We had Erica and Caleb join us for that; but Michael and I were on our own by a bit after nine. Rebecca went with Miranda to take Lucas home; Rowen and Tim, and Erica and Caleb, left then too, and though Jacob stayed behind; that wasn't so that he could supervise us for the half-hour that Miranda and Rebecca were gone.

Michael and I went up to his room for a music practice that included running through our band and music class music; the praise team songs that we'll be doing next Sunday; and a short guitar practice. We also had a little it's-your-birthday make-out session, but while that was fun; it wasn't too hot for prime time. I had a later school-night curfew, so it was eleven o'clock when I went home. I loved spending the extra time with Michael; but that's also meant a late start to my usual school night work and studies.

That started with a Magi lesson with Mom that took until midnight – though there was a daily recap chat included in that hour of fun and Magi play time. I stopped in to kiss Ethan and Ehlana goodnight on my way up to bed after that; but they didn't wake up for that – they'd had a very busy day of play time at the lab and college studies; so I wasn't surprised that they'd run out of steam. I know I have as I write this now!

I got ready for bed after getting up here to my room; cuddled with Mandy; and got to work on my language studies. That took an hour and a half; followed by an hour of archive reading; and another hour and a half of family business work. My part-time job seems to be taking more time to keep up with lately, but I didn't do much of that work on the weekend; so I had some catching up to do – which for me means catching up to the ahead of schedule place where I normally try to keep my work at.

If you're keeping up with that, you know it's past four o'clock now. I'm going to need to use a little Magi power in the morning to make up for the lack of sleep; but I'll manage to get through another busy Tuesday. Make that a busier Tuesday than normal; since we have yet another birthday dinner booked – this time for Uncle Nick at his parents' house. With everything else I have on the go, that'll be about the entire extent of my involvement with that; but I'm sure that Aunt Deborah will help to make sure that Uncle Nick has a happy day.

Since I'll be napping through that, and maybe our praise team practice too if I don't at least get a little nap time now, though; it's time to call it a night.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Happy 27th Birthday, Uncle Nick!

I'm sure that he's had an awesome day; but I've had another really late night; so this is going to be a short report.

This last day of September has been beautiful; and we've really lucked out with the weather to end the month – especially compared to the cool and wet we had earlier that included rainy or cold football games. Since that means we can be outdoors for Tai Chi by the river; I'm good with that continuing as far into the fall as possible. Michael came over for Tai Chi, but we split up while having breakfast and getting ready for school. We went in early enough to stop in and wish Uncle Nick a happy birthday; but then it was time for a fairly normal school day. There was another football scrimmage at lunchtime, but Rowen and I were busy with our cheerleading practice. That was outdoors too, and though I haven't mentioned it before; we get quite a little group of spectators for those noon practices – particularly among the youngest girls.

I know, you're thinking that it'd be the teen boys wanting to watch us, and some do, but we're all also currently dating someone; so the other guys at least try not to be too obvious about appreciating the view.

Moving along, Rowen and I had band practice after school; and then I had a few things to do at home before going on to the birthday dinner party at the Ayres' house. Mom had gone on ahead by then with Ethan and Ehlana to help out with the cooking and work; so I was on my own while grabbing a shower and getting changed; but I still managed to get there in time to help out with the tail end of the kitchen work. Dad and Michael met us there; and the fun was on again – though this time; that was only for about an hour for Michael and me before we needed to be at the church for our teen praise team practice. We missed most of the cake, ice cream, and gifts part of the evening; and the after-dinner play time; but we couldn't really skip the practice when we're leading the service this Sunday.

That's also why we had a long practice with extra teens around for a run-through of a couple of skits we're doing to go along with the music and scripture readings. Pastor John will have a sermon too; so I can tell you that the service this Sunday will go a bit long – even if we can stick right to the program without any extra action or a drawn-out sermon.

Again, moving along; it was time for Michael and I to do our homework after that; so we went to his house and got to work in the dining room. Without being able to speed that up with a little Magi assist; it took a while to get a couple of our assignments finished. That's why we didn't get much time for a goodnight cuddle session before I needed to be home again; and why I'm up really late again tonight.

In fact, other than the added bonus of being awake for the start of another month; this has been a near-repeat of last night. Ethan and Ehlana had just gone to bed when I got home, so I went upstairs to say goodnight to them first; but then Mom did another long Magi lesson with me before Dad finished his work and they went up to bed. I've been working on my studies and family business work since climbing into bed with Mandy, and while it isn't after four; it is closer to four than three as I write this. Even a junior Magi Master runs out of steam now and then; and right now – it's then for me!

This didn't exactly end up as a micro report; but I am done now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!
October 2014

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

This has been an interesting first day of October; with a couple of top stories to report.

First up is the most obvious change around school and town today; and that would be the sudden appearance of orange on the teen guy fashion front. Michael didn't say a word to me in advance; but he was in on the plan that Tim talked all of the Grade Nine guys into doing with him; and some of the football guys dressed in orange too. Whether they dressed head-to-toe in orange or only wore an orange shirt or hat; the guys all had fun with the launch of their new fashion theme; and enjoyed the attention they got from the rest of the students.

Rowen and I are happy to let the boys have their fun, but if Michael or Tim expect us to wear orange too; they're going to be disappointed. I might be convinced to hang a little stuffed pumpkin on my computer bag; but orange clothes would look atrocious on me – and on Rowen too. It's a safe bet that the majority of girls at our school will feel the same way; though there's also a good chance that the younger boys all ran home to either search for orange clothes or ask parents to buy some for them so they could be as cool as the older guys appear to be to them.

You might be wondering why Tim and the other guys thought that this would be a good idea and fun. They're teenage boys – a 'why' isn't required. ;^)

The other news of the day was from the ranks of the cheerleaders. Jenny will have more details for us tomorrow, but her news revolved around her boyfriend, Lance. Mr. Caldwell turned sixteen today; passed the test for that all-important second step in the driver's license process; and picked Jenny up in his birthday present car after our practice. She's spending the evening at his family 'estate' along with his family and some school friends. I'm sure that she'll have an amazing evening; but it's now having a boyfriend who can drive on his own and has his own wheels that really has Jenny fired up today. I expect that we'll see Lance around here more often from now on; and Jenny will definitely want to venture out into the world whenever they find time for date nights.

Compared to that, my personal day has been a bit on the boring side. Rowen and I stayed in the background while the orange craze was launched; Jenny was the center of attention among the cheerleaders; and it was a work night for me from the time I left the school until now. I did take a dinner break with Mom, Dad, and the twins; but worked pretty much non-stop the rest of the time until wrapping up the work for the day and helping to get Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night.

I've skipped over the weather report, and we've had lots of rain today and tonight, but since I was indoors most of the time; I didn't really mind. The rain didn't arrive until after we got to school; so Tai Chi by the river was an option. The only time I got wet was during the walk home, but a change of clothes and hot drink took care of that little inconvenience.

There isn't anything exciting to report from the work or studying; and I've been in my Jacuzzi since tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night. I'm multi-tasking the tub time with my bedtime computer checks and it's time to get out of the tub and finish getting ready for bed; so I'd better finish this up and get on with that – especially since Wednesday night seems to be my only chance for extra sleep during the school week.

I'll need the extra eye rest too if I'm going to be inundated with orange visuals for the next however long it takes for this fad to run its course. If you know me in my future as you read this, and I have an aversion to the color orange; you'll know where it came from! ;^)

That's all for now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Happy 4th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Judging by the tired smiles on their faces this morning when they got their anniversary wake-up call; it was obvious that they'd started celebrating early after going to bed last night; and they're ending the day the same way – thanks to the kid-free night that Grandpa and Grandma gave them as one of their gifts.

Yes, this update is coming to you live from one of the guest bedrooms at their house; and I have Ehlana for a cuddle buddy tonight.

It's been a very wet day around here for their anniversary, and while that put a big damper on the fun around here; the weather didn't end up being a big deal for me – other than Tai Chi needed to be indoors today. Michael came over for that, and stayed for breakfast – and to help me with the work. We had Mom and Dad open our gifts while we had our morning meal, and that was an entertaining little blast of fun; but then we had to rush around to get everything cleaned up and get ready for school.

Our classes today just felt like something to do between the breakfast and dinner celebrations; though there was some fun going on at school too. Day two of the orange fad had more guys dressing up in anything orange, and while the trend is catching on, I was reminded a few times today that this really isn't even as strange as the pajama pants phase the guys went through a couple of years ago. That's true, but putting up with orange everywhere for what will likely at least be until after Halloween could be tough for those of us with hyper-senses.

At cheerleading practice after school, Jenny was again the center of attention as she told us all about Lance's car; his amazing family home; and the fancy dinner party with his family and friends. She also went into graphic detail about how she celebrated his birthday with him after the party when they got to have some alone time before he took her home; but we won't go into that here.

In this case, everyone reading this journal in the future is probably an adult, unless the rules get changed; so don't use your imagination for what they might have been doing – that'd be weird!

The rain meant that our practice was indoors; and the football guys got soaked during their practice. That sucked for them, but at least it was the day-before-a-game light workout; so they were allowed to hit the showers and get dry again before having the in-classroom meeting part of their practice. While Michael was busy with that, I went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house as soon as my practice ended so that I could help out with getting the anniversary dinner ready. Aunt Leanne came over to help with that too, and we had Ethan and Ehlana with us by them; but Mom had that time off to get ready for dinner and kid-free night. Michael came over after his practice, but he was only there a few minutes before Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark arrived; so we basically were ready to sit down and eat by then.

Dinner was a major event, and while going to the Inn had been an option; Grandma had wanted to do a 'real' family meal for Mom and Dad this year. That meant having multiple courses that started with appetizers and moved through salads, soups, and the main course – an amazing roast with a half-dozen delicious side dishes. Even the cake and pie options for dessert were home-made; and we took our time enjoying everything.

Okay, most of us took our time. I spent a lot of that two hours or so helping Grandma and Aunt Leanne with getting those dishes served and then cleared away. Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah were banned from helping out due to their advanced stage of pregnancies – an order that I fully agreed with. They're both working too hard as it is with their work and home life, and it's time for them to start doing less work; not more.

There were more gifts for Mom and Dad to open; and yet another one that Aunt Leanne told Mom to save to open until later.

Yes, you're allowed to use your imagination there, future Magi reader; but if I'm still around when you do; don't tell me about it! As always; I am not going there.

Let's move this along a bit faster. Mom and Dad loved their gifts; we all enjoyed the meal; and then they were sent off to get started on their kid-free night. You'll have to check Mom's journal for the details if you really must; but you won't read about that here. By then, we'd already missed the start of game night at the Inn anyway, so Michael stayed to help with the clean-up; and then we did our homework in the dining room while Grandma, Grandpa, and our uncles and aunts entertained Ethan, Ehlana, Zack, and Leah for a while. All of the dinner guests, including Michael, went home shortly after we'd finished our studying; and then Ethan, Ehlana, and I got started on our 'real' studying for a couple of hours while Grandma and Grandpa visited with us and watched television.

That's pretty much all of the news for today – or at least everything I'll write about here. Grandma and Grandpa took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for bed; Grandma had a bedtime chat with Ehlana and me while Grandpa did the same with Ethan in; and Ehlana and I have been chatting while I've been doing a last bit of family business work and my usual nightly computer checks. I should stay up and do more work, but it's been a long day; and I want to be ready for another football game day too; so I decided not to do the extra family business work now. I'll catch up on the weekend instead.

Ehlana says 'goodnight', and suggests that you hop over to her journal for today too if you're interested in the latest on her research in the lab or with her college studies. Feel free to do that, and her work is really interesting – even though I don't personally have any time right now to get involved in what they're doing at the lab.

Anyway, I really do want to get some sleep now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Our Ridge River Raiders are not starting out the second half of the season as happily as the first half; and we lost a close match to new perennial rivals, Grand Summit.

By 'new', I mean recent history; since it's only been the last couple of seasons that have been an issue – at least from the Grand Summit side of the football; and that was almost entirely due to Kyle's dominance of their team. Two years ago, we won big in the second round of the playoffs, and last year; we beat them in the third round. That one really hurt them being just one game away from a shot at the Championship. Since we were on their home turf for this game, our guys shouldn't be too disappointed, and they only lost by one point; but they are still upset to now have two losses on the season.

While we're on that thought, I'm also going to mention that the most of the guys were not impressed with Jason Johnson again after the game. Bragging about being the top point scorer again this week was bad enough; but doing that after a loss was just stupid. I wasn't around him for any of that nonsense; but Michael and Tim told Rowen and me about it after we were home again. That boy needs to get a clue before some of his friends clue him in the hard way.

I'm sure from that news you can gather that we kicked some field goals tonight – and there were six of them. Our run game got stuffed all night; and Michael and Tim only managed two touchdowns each. Basically, if they got away from the defenders on long plays, they did great; but our red zone play didn't cut it tonight. The only surprising thing about that was the fact that we were in the lead late; and lost it on a last-play field goal thanks to good time management by the Grand Summit coach.

Okay, that's enough of the football report. The cheerleading was fun right up to that downer of an ending; but it was also cold tonight; and has been getting colder. The rain ended earlier today, though, so at least we weren't cold and wet tonight. Our half-time routine went over well with the hostile crowd, so that was good too; and I was also glad that we didn't have any major hassles with any guys hitting on us tonight too. Maybe that had something to do with wearing our warmer uniforms, but whatever the reason; I'm glad that it wasn't an issue this week.

The trips to and from Grand Summit were uneventful, and Rowen and I got most of our weekend homework out of the way while we were on the road. Grand Summit is an hour and a half south of Witch Falls; though you need to go out to the highway, head south, and then back-track west to get there more quickly than you can taking back roads there. We didn't have much time to check out the town or even the school before the game; and it was too dark for a tour when it was time to head home.

We wouldn't have done that anyway. It was after midnight by the time we got back to our school anyway; we still had to put all of our gear away; and then Michael and Tim walked home with Rowen and me. We split up for the goodnight hugs and kisses, and though I was tempted to have Michael come in with me for a little cuddle time; we both have a busy work day to deal with starting in just a few hours from now; and I still had some family business work to get done after coming up to my room.

Mom and Dad were already in bed and actually sleeping by then, so I quietly stopped in for goodnight kisses in Ethan's and Ehlana's rooms; and then came up here and got ready for bed. I microwaved a cup of hot chocolate before climbing into bed with Mandy and my computer; and have been working since then.

I've had enough fun for today, but before I wrap this up; let's back up to a quick review of the rest of the day. Starting the morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house was fun; though Ethan, Ehlana, and I stayed indoors for Tai Chi due to the cool weather and wet grass. Grandma made blueberry pancakes and sausages for us; and I was okay with the shorter-than-usual walk to school. Ethan and Ehlana probably had more fun hanging out with our grandparents all morning while Mom got to do some running around; and then they spent the afternoon at the lab with Mom, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Grace. My school day was uneventful; but that'll pick up again next week because the Fall Festival starts next Friday.

Having that on the schedule next week is the main reason why I'll be helping out with an all-day yard work adventure for Saturday, and while I usually like helping Mom and Dad; we're all going to be a bit uncomfortable if the temperature drops near to freezing as forecast. Raking and bagging leaves sucks when they're frosty and wet.

Oh wait – Dad has that new lawn mower with the vacuum and bagger that we got him for Father's Day!

Never mind – life is good! ;^)

Some nap time will be good too, and I'm going to get to that right now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

This has been a very busy day, with a lot of work this morning and afternoon; and some quiet play time tonight.

It was definitely as chilly as advertised – or forecast – this morning; so Tai Chi was indoors; and Mom cooked up a pot of apples and cinnamon oatmeal for us to have for breakfast before Dad and I went outside to get to work. As I mentioned in my last update, the good news this fall is that Dad has his nice new lawn tractor with the awesome vacuum, mulcher, and rear-bagger system. That definitely made a huge difference with the work today, but it didn't automate all of the work.

Leaves still needed to be raked out of the gardens, away from the trees and bushes, off of the paths and driveway, and up from the banks of the river. While that was still a lot of work; being able to clean up those leaves – and the rest of the yard – with the lawn tractor saved us hours of raking and bagging. That was the good news, but the less exciting part of that for me was that Dad just had other jobs on our to-do list that we could do instead. That's why we were able to keep working until nearly seven o'clock without running out of jobs to do; and we only took three short morning, lunch, and afternoon breaks that were as much to give us a chance to warm up as they were a chance to rest and eat.

Mom had dinner ready by then, but sent Dad and I off to have showers and get changed first; and then we sat down to eat after that. Rowen and Tim came over for eight o'clock, and Ethan, Ehlana, and I were set free so that we could come upstairs to the lounge and hang out there. We watched the latest Sofia the First episode, which was a cute Halloween show; and then Tim and Ethan played video games while we waited for Michael to come over after finishing up at the Inn for the night.

When he joined us, the boys played video games for a while longer until Mom and Dad came upstairs to get the twins and put them to bed – mostly because they wanted to go to bed early too. Once we'd taken care of the goodnight hugs and kisses; it was time for some cuddling. Rowen and I were happy to do that with our respective boyfriends; and we watched the new Monster High video – Freaky Fusion. For the record, the boys did not get to pick the show tonight, and Tim kept a running monologue of jokes going on during the show; but they didn't mind watching it as much as he protested.

The trade off for girls' choice movie was that we ended the night with watching a lengthy football recap show until it was time for Michael, Tim, and Rowen to head home by shortly before midnight. I won't bore you with the details that you could look up anyway if you really care, but the one thing that Tim cared about was that Kyle's team won their game this week; and Kyle had a particularly good game with two sacks and three turnovers.

We really had fun hanging out with Rowen and Tim tonight, so even though that's meant missing out on another alone time opportunity; Michael and I were okay with the trade-off and the best friends time. That does remind me that I'm also way overdue for some quality time with my best girlfriend; so I'll see what we can do about that next weekend. Fall Festival sleepovers are an option; and we should definitely do that!

Getting back to the news for tonight, though, after my friends went home; I came back up to my room and got ready for bed. Sleep wasn't an option at that point because I needed to get some family business work done first. That ended up taking more than an hour and a half; and then I did some language studying before moving on to my usual computer checks and this journal update.

I probably shouldn't have done all of that extra work and studying, because Michael and I need to be at church early to get ready for leading the service with the teen praise team; but I'll use a little Magi self-healing if needed in the morning. We're also helping with the buffets tomorrow too; so it's going to be yet another long, busy day for us.

We are going to get to spend a lot of time playing next weekend, though, so I'm going to keep working hard for the next few days so that I'll be ready to take most of those three days off to enjoy the fall festival.

That's it for now, and I do need to get some sleep; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Sally!

For the first time since moving here, I haven't really gotten to celebrate it with her; but Michael and I were busy at the Inn – partly because her birthday dinner was there this year. We did take a break while they did the cake and ice cream dessert and Sally opened her gifts; but we were in the kitchen the rest of the time that she was there with her family and quite a few of our friends – including Rowen and Tim. She has had a good day, though; and loved the gift that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I picked out for her this year.

The weather was nicer for her special day too, and though it was still chilly this morning; we went outside for Tai Chi by the river and just dressed extra-warm to do that. Michael and I really needed to run after that. We hit the showers; got ready for church; I went to his house for a breakfast-on-the-fly that was way better than Pop Tarts to go; and then we went on to the church to warm up with the teen praise team. While our service wasn't quite the events we do for holiday weekends, it was still very upbeat and entertaining for the congregation; and Michael and I had a lot of fun while singing, playing, and helping out with one of the skits.

After that, we were busy working for the rest of the day except for our afternoon break and that cameo visit with Sally and her family and friends. Our afternoon break included some study time, since Michael and Tim hadn't done their homework yet; so even that was more work than play – though we did sit outside by the river to do that; and Rowen and I mostly had a little chat while the boys worked.

Michael and I stayed at the Inn until close; we had company for our goodnight hug and kiss, so that was uneventful; and then I got started on my usual school night studies and work after getting home. Mom did my Magi lesson first because the twins were working on some college assignments, but then we tucked them into bed; and moved on to some quality Jacuzzi time before going to bed too. I'll take a wild guess that Mom and Dad had more fun before going to sleep than I've had; but let's not go there.

While they were playing, I did my language studies while in the tub; got ready for bed; and then moved on to my archive study assignment once I was cuddled in bed with Mandy and my computer. There was nearly two hours of family business work to do after that, and though I was tempted to use a time phase; I didn't do that tonight. It's closing in on three-thirty now because of that choice, but I need to keep putting in extra time for the next few nights if I want to take the weekend off for the festival.

Yes, sometimes it does suck to be a junior Magi Master! ;^)

Only sometimes, though; and there is lots of awesome to off-set the not-so-fun parts of the job.

I'll keep the college teen update short, and don't actually have much to report. Believe it or not, most of my favorite collegians are already starting to get ready for their mid-terms. How time flies when you're having fun! The good news for us with that is knowing that those mid-terms will be the half-way point of the semester – and we'll be half-way to having them home for Christmas break. Violet and Dillon get to come home for Thanksgiving too, but this year; they're reversing what they did last year and will be in Woodvale first and here for the four-day weekend.

That's getting ahead of things when we still have the fall festival and Halloween between now and then; but I am looking forward to the holidays too – and I am used to thinking about things like that months in advance when I'm working on the family business. I need to be thinking about my more immediate future, though; and that means getting some sleep. We only have a short school week thanks to the fall festival, and a short nap to get that started fits right in; so let's get to that now.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Micro-update time!

Tai Chi by the river was chilly, but we dressed appropriately. The rest of the morning and school day was fun, but uneventful. Cheerleading practice after school was highlighted by Jenny's weekend dating report, and while that was entertaining; having a boyfriend with a car just isn't that big of a deal to the four older girls on the squad.

Dinner at Michael's was awesome, and Rebecca had Lucas there with her for that this week; so he came home after football practice with Michael. Rowen and Tim came over to study with the four of us after dinner; and then Michael and I had some alone time to practice our music – and spend a few quality minutes making out before I needed to get home.

The rest of my night was standard school night studying and family business work with a little extra time put in on all of the usual activities to get ahead for the festival weekend. That's why it's nearly four o'clock now – and time to keep this short and get some sleep; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

I'm going to keep this short again tonight because I'm just as tired out as yesterday; but for a better reason.

The only news of interest today from my perspective is that Michael and I got to have some quality alone time tonight; mostly thanks to having no teen praise team practice this week. That was because we have until Thanksgiving to get ready for our next service; and quite a few of the other teens are busy with getting ready for the fall festival anyway.

Rowen and I still had cheerleading practice at noon and band practice after school; but Michael was able to come over to my house for dinner and spend the evening with me. The food, Magi lesson, and Halloween movie in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana was fun, and so was using a little Magi power to do our homework while we watched the show; but it was the play time after we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night that was the best part of my day.

We definitely need to do that more often!

Yeah, I know – but maybe that'll actually happen now and then instead of just wishing for it and then getting too busy to have much alone time.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a short update; so let's wrap it up. Michael and I really enjoyed our make-out time; he went home by eleven o'clock; and then I got to work on my bedtime studies and family business work. That's what I've been doing for the past four hours and change; and now I'm pretty much worn out. The good news is that we're now half-way through the shortened school week; and I'll be able to do the work day and early bedtime tomorrow – later today.

I really need to go into nap mode right now, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

I went to school; had cheerleading practice after school; and worked all evening except for having a short dinner break. Some Magi-powered cheating was involved to get extra work done tonight; but now I'm totally exhausted and won't even be doing the Jacuzzi time before crashing for the night.

The midway rides began arriving today and the park set-up is being pushed along because there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow; but I didn't even go over to the park to check any of that action out. Maybe I'll take Ethan and Ehlana for a quick visit tomorrow, weather permitting; but I'm also booked to help out at the Inn for dinner and game night too; so we'll see how that goes.

I'm not actually sleeping while writing this, but it feels as though I am sleep-writing; so I'm going to put my computer away now and get started on actually getting a solid seven consecutive hours or so of rest.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Rain, Rain, go away; don't come back until after the fall festival is over!

That would be nice; but probably isn't going to happen unless the forecasters are way, way off-base – and they weren't today. We have been getting a lot of rain today; we're supposed to get more tomorrow; and the temperature may not even get much higher than the low-fifties between now and Sunday afternoon.

While we didn't even bother trying to go to the park to watch the rides being set up today; I can tell you that the people doing the work there have had a miserable day – both the professionals and the volunteers setting up tents and booths for the weekend festivities.

I stayed away from the park, and it was a fairly quiet day around school and at the Inn because of the weather – and the potential for having lousy weather for the next couple of days that won't make play time at the park much fun. That really sucks for the kids of all ages who look forward to the festival every year; but it is in October; and that's bound to happen some years.

This was also a lousy day for football practice; but our cheerleading workout was at noon and indoors; I did my homework with Rebecca at the Inn after school before helping out with a very light dinner rush; and then Michael and I had fun at game night. There wasn't a big turnout for that either; and we won the junior championship again this week.

The rest of my night was pretty much standard work and study action along with some Jacuzzi time. It's late now, and though I'm not any more excited about the fall festival right now as any other teen around here – especially as I listen to the rain continue to fall on the roof as I write this; I have gotten my work done now and can take the weekend off to play with my family and friends.

Now I just need to hope that we'll get to do that without being perpetually wet for the next seventy-two hours or so.

Too bad Mom wouldn't let me do something about that, but it would be tough to explain an eye in the storm the size of the park with the sun shining and the temperature in the mid-seventies while it rained everywhere else in the area. I could probably do a heated dome too, and either option would be really cool to do; but that isn't going to happen, so I'll just deal with whatever Mother Nature sends our way – just like everyone else will.

I'm going to go to sleep now, and maybe we'll wake up to a minor weather miracle. You, reading this in my future will know how that works out by flipping the digital page and reading on, but I'll have to wait to find out in real time; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, October 10, 2014

It's Friday, which means we're supposed to start with the football report, but it's also the first day of the fall festival; so should I start with football or festival?

We'll go with the football; but only because most of our day at the festival just wasn't that much fun thanks to the rain that teased us by holding off until shortly after we got to the park; and then hung around until nearly half-way through the football game.

The good news there, is that our team seems to do fairly well in cool, wet weather. Tonight, we beat Three Rivers by a score of fifty-nine to forty-one. Out of our eight touchdowns on the night, Michael had three of them; including one defensive interception for a score. Tim and Caleb had two each; and Lucas had one. We only kicked one field goal, and while the guys hadn't intentionally left Jason Johnson without more field goal chances; it was a bonus to have him in fourth place on the team scoring this week so that he didn't shoot his mouth off all night. That didn't totally work, since he did have nine successful kicks for points; but at least he wasn't being quite as annoying as he has after other games.

On the cheerleading side of the game, it honestly wasn't much fun to start out being wet and staying damp and cold for the rest of the game even after the rain stopped. We also didn't exactly have a huge turnout of spectators. Most people who wanted to brave the weather also wanted to be at the festival.

I wanted to be there too, but we would have had a lot more fun with warmer weather and no rain. It isn't totally fair to suggest that we didn't have any fun, but let's face it – cold, rainy days are just not great for playing carnival games or going on midway rides. We could still enjoy the shows and displays in the various tents and pavilions in relative comfort, and we did that during the morning; but we also spent a lot of the afternoon cold, wet, and uncomfortable.

After the game, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I went to the teen dance at the park with most of the other members of the team and squad, and we didn't get rained on; but it was still cold and damp out; and we eventually came back to my house a full hour and a half before we needed to be home. Our two attempts at going on rides tonight didn't work out either; since Rowen and I were too cold to enjoy them. Michael and Tim were too, but had to be too cool to admit that.

How ridiculous is it to be too cool to be freezing? Think about it, guys!

Before I move on from the fair news, I'll mention that Jenny got to spend the day with Lance because the students from his school were at the park today too – as were most of the students from neighboring towns. They hung out with Rebecca and Lucas, and while Lance went home on the Maple Valley busses; he drove back here tonight to watch Jenny – I mean the game – and then go to the dance with her too. We didn't see that much of them tonight; so I suspect that they were finding something else to do to stay warm – like making out in Lance's car.

There was some Grade Nine teen dating news today too. Allen and Karla went to the festival together today and tonight, and from what we saw at the dance; I'd say they're officially dating already, though the official announcement hasn't been made. At the other end of the drama scale, it looks as though Lily and Kris are about to break up. They were still together today, but barely spent any time together at the dance tonight. We haven't heard why that happened yet; but neither of them looked to be particularly upset – they just didn't want to be together.

As I mentioned, we came home early, and though we didn't have enough time left to watch a full movie, we did get cups of hot chocolate and a warm snack; and watched one of the Simpsons' Halloween shows while cuddling and getting warmed up again. Michael and Tim needed to go home after that, but Rowen's spending the night. After we said goodnight to our respective boyfriends, she borrowed my bathroom for some quality time with my Jacuzzi; so I've been doing my usual nightly computing while she's busy with that.

I don't have any other news from that, or for the rest of today; but I can report that the weather forecast is looking a bit better for tomorrow and Sunday now – at least from the rain perspective. It's still only going to be in the fifties tomorrow, and might hit the low sixties on Sunday; so maybe the festival weekend won't be a write-off after all. The down side is that today was Michael's big chance to have fun there, and he'll be busy helping out at the Inn a lot tomorrow and Sunday – and I'm going to help out with the buffets on Sunday too. That'll leave me with more time to play with Ethan, Ehlana, and our collective family; but I would have liked to have more fun with Michael too.

Rowen's going to be done in the tub soon, and while I'm not going to take a turn doing that tonight too; I am ready to wrap this up and just end our night with some girl chat time – assuming we don't just end up falling asleep five minutes after we snuggle in bed with Mandy.

I would have loved to have a more entertaining first day of the festival to report, but this is just one of those examples when even a junior Magi Master has to deal with a not-so-great day.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

What a difference a day makes!

Not only did we get a sunny day; but the temperature even climbed into the mid-sixties by this afternoon. That made for a fun fall festival day with my family; and the only downside was that I didn't get to spend as much of the day with Michael as I would have liked.

He did come over for Tai Chi and breakfast; we spent his afternoon break together at the park mostly going on rides with Rowen and Tim; and he came back to the park after work to catch the end of the dance and go on a few more rides with me too before taking me home for a little post-festival cuddle time.

I spent the rest of the day with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; and we all spent at least some time with all of the members of our family and quite a few of our friends. We visited the pavilions and caught some shows while it was cooler in the morning; had lunch with pretty much everyone; played games and hit the midway rides all afternoon; and had dinner at the park too. We all eventually went to the country dance; though Mom and Dad took Ethan and Ehlana home shortly after Michael got there. That was partly because most of the younger kids were tired out and going home too by then; and partly so that Dad could do some work to get ready for his week in the city.

Ethan, Ehlana, and I were especially glad to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa today. They'll be leaving for Arizona on Monday, so even though I didn't get as much time to spend with Michael while he was helping out at the Inn; that was a decent trade-off. We're all busy, and they understand; but sometimes it's tough keeping up with all of our family when I'm so busy with teen and friends stuff. I could say the same thing about some friendship stuff too, since Rowen and I haven't exactly had many sleepovers since school started compared to other years, but for some reason; neither of us seem all that interested in exchanging any boyfriend time to make room for more girl chats and slumber parties.

I doubt that you're wondering why; so let's move along.

That coincidentally brings us to the Michael and me cuddle time. How convenient! ;^)

It was also pretty much a non-event too. Trust me, I'm more sorry for us than for not having any hot news to report to my future journal readers; but we were both tired out by then. We even dozed off a couple of times while stretched out on the sofa in the lounge while not really watching a Halloween movie. We were seriously tempted to shoot for another sofa sleepover, but resisted the urge; and Michael went home on-time for his extended fall festival weekend curfew.

Sometimes I agree with Aunt Leanne – I need to get away from my parents more often. Being responsible occasionally really sucks.

That is why I'm writing this now instead of in the morning, though; and I ended up doing some work too that popped up in my email while doing the usual bedtime computer checks. A lot more happened around the park today, but I am tired out again; and should get some sleep so I'll be ready for another busy day of fun and work. The fun will include Zack's first birthday party and more fall festival play time; and the work is going to be the buffet shift at the Inn.

Before I wrap this up, though, I really should mention that the one good thing about the weather today, and if we get another nice day tomorrow, is that the fall festival fundraisers will be a success – something that was definitely in doubt yesterday. Our family did our part; and I hope our friends and neighbors will keep doing the same. For some of those groups, this is as big a deal for them as the holiday weekends are in the summer. Aunt Grace is making sure that the lab gets involved with local charities and social groups too, but that's really just getting started; and will take years to develop.

Okay, that's enough for tonight. It's time to cuddle with Mandy and get some sleep; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Happy 1st Birthday, Zack!

He's had a fairly typical first birthday; though it is going to be very cool for him to get to have some of his birthdays on fall festival weekends like he gets to do this year. That wasn't quite the adventure it will be for him in future years; but he did still have a lot of fun today.

So did I, and though the work at the Inn was tough today; I even had fun spending that time with Michael and his family. I also had breakfast at Michael's house this morning, and we were able to be outdoors for a chilly Tai Chi workout to start the day too; so that was all fairly awesome and entertaining.

The church service was probably the shortest we'll have for the rest of the year, so we had extra time after we got home to change and get ready for a play afternoon at the festival – and Zack's lunchtime birthday meal with the family at his house. I'm sure the details of that will be available somewhere in the archives, but I'll save Zack the future grief and not write about the amusing parts of that meal. It was just a little bit scary, but he had fun; and there wasn't anything that couldn't be cleaned up – eventually.

Our afternoon of games and more midway rides was great too – especially since I got to spend a lot of that time with Michael thanks to an extended afternoon break for him. Considering how busy it was at the park today; I'd say that the business we didn't have there on Friday has been more than made up for between yesterday and today. I'm glad that worked out for everyone – and that the weekend ended up being much more fun than expected.

My family was at the Inn for the early buffet so that Dad could just get to work again after that instead of trying to start and stop that for a dinner break; but I didn't take the time off to have that meal with them. Ethan, Ehlana, and Zack got to spend that time with Grandma and Grandpa with some parental support here and there; and then they had a little post-dinner visit at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's that Dad skipped so that he could work. The last part of that family time was mostly so that Grandma and Grandpa could spend just a little more time with three out of four of their grandkids before heading to Arizona in the morning, and though I missed out on that; I did swing by their house after finishing up at the Inn tonight so that Michael and I could say a last, quick goodbye to them too.

I did the goodnight hugs and kisses with Michael on his front porch, and then came home to get started on my usual school night work and studies. Helping with getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed ended up happening first; I did my Magi lesson with Mom; and then came up to my room to start with the language and archives studies. That was followed by an hour or so of family business time; and now I'm pretty much exhausted.

That's why I'm going to keep this comparatively short. It's been a very long day, I've had more than enough fun, and since that's really all of the news I have to write about tonight anyway; until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Grandma and Grandpa are in Arizona now, and I'm wishing I was there because it's been back to wet and rainy around here today. I won't complain about that; since Mother Nature was nice enough to give us two out of three decent days for the fall festival. Dad's also in the city for the week; so we had the usual early morning start to the day and I'm really tired out again now after another late night.

There hasn't been a lot going on around school today – other than a lot of talk about the festival weekend and dating news. Halloween plans are on the radar now too; but that'll kick up another notch tomorrow once the festival chatter winds down. I also had fun at cheerleading practice, which was indoors; but the boys did not enjoy their wet workout for football practice after school. Lucas and I were with Rebecca, Michael, and their parents for dinner tonight; we studied together; and then Michael and I wrapped up our evening with some music and make-out time in his room before I needed to get home and on with the rest of my usual school night studies and work.

I'll skip the details for all of that, since I really do want to get to sleep; but it is time for a weekly plans update because I do have some news there.

First up, Aunt Leanne's birthday is on Thursday, and the news Mom gave us this morning was about that. She and Uncle Adam are taking Aunt Leanne to the city for a night out and sleepover on Wednesday; they'll come back Thursday afternoon; and then we'll have a birthday dinner party for her at the Inn before game night. Ethan, Ehlana, and I will be with our best friends for the night on Wednesday. There was one more travel news story that directly affects Rowen and me. Tim and Michael are going away for the weekend to see Kyle's football game this Saturday. Tim's father and Uncle Lee are going to their game Friday night; and then they'll leave directly from Varney after the game to drive there so they'll have more time to spend with Kyle in the morning before the game. Since Lee is a locally famous football alumni at his college; I won't be terribly surprised to find out that he gets the VIP treatment – and maybe even sidelines access during the game. That'd freak Tim out if he got to do that too!

I'm sure that they'll have an awesome time; but this is going to be a strange weekend for Rowen and I to be boyfriend-less for a couple of days. We're already doing the mid-week sleepover; but we might need to hang out together a lot while they're away too. There's a very good chance that they'll have more fun than we will – this is going to definitely be a yard work weekend, and Rowen and I both know that we're booked to do that at our respective houses. The one addition to that this week that will be fun is the Halloween decorating. I'll probably do that with some junior help from Ethan and Ehlana this year; and we should probably work on picking Halloween costumes too. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I haven't decided whether we'll got out trick-or-treating this year. Quite a few teens here too, but I don't think that we will – unless I get drafted to take the twins out. We'll still need costumes for the party and haunted house at school; and we have signed up to help with the Haunted House now that we can do that this year; but the work for that hasn't gotten started yet.

Anyway, I guess that's all of the major news for today. Michael and I will likely be here tomorrow night with Mom and the twins so that she can do a lesson with us before her trip to the city, and now that I'm thinking about Michael's trip now too; I'd better see what we can do about having some alone time too. I definitely don't want him forgetting me while he's gone! ;^)

It's time to get some sleep now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I'm exhausted, and will need to be up early to help Mom with Ethan and Ehlana – and get ready for my own sleepover at Rowen's; so this is going to be another micro-update.

Tai Chi; breakfast; school; cheerleading practice at noon; band practice after school; and our teen praise team practice after dinner had me running all day. Michael was with me at my house for dinner with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; and came home with me after our praise team practice to do a Magi lesson with me and spend some time together. There was a minor make-out session before he went home for the night, but that wasn't particularly hot; and didn't happen until after we had our homework finished and helped with getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed.

I've been working on my computer since Michael went home, and since I'll be at Rowen's house tomorrow night; I needed to get extra work done tonight that I can't do there. That's why it's heading toward four-thirty now and I'll be needing some self-healing when I get up from my nap. The work needed to get done, though; so I'll deal with the down-side that goes along with the job.

There's absolutely zero detail in any of that report, but I'm barely awake right now anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

I am absolutely positive that Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne are having more fun today and tonight than I am here. I'm also sure that Ethan, Ehlana, Zack, and I won't need the details for a lot of that fun – at least for the hotel end of the action.

Here at home, Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace have Zack with them tonight; and are supposedly practicing for their impending parenthood. Zack keeps two Magi parents hopping, so I'm just going to suggest that it's a really good thing that Aunt Grace doesn't really have a choice about having her baby!

For when you read this in the future some day, Zack; I'm only kidding! ;^)

While our parents are away, Ethan's with Aiden; Ehlana's at Naomi's; and I'm hanging out with Rowen and her family. Not at all surprisingly, Scott's here tonight too. The sleepover days like these are probably numbered for them, just as they started to be for Michael and Tim a couple of years ago, but they also don't bug Rowen and I too much anymore; so having them here too isn't that big of a deal.

I should cover the rest of the news for the day, but there isn't much to write about – even with the sleepover action. We've had a really decent weather day, so Tai Chi by the river was an option this morning; and so was football at lunchtime for the guys while the girls watched and had some chat time. We had one test and a new project assignment in our classes; but not much else of excitement going on there. Rowen and I had cheerleading practice after school, and then it was a work night for both of us after that until the computer store closed for the night. Michael was busy at the Inn all evening too, but Tim came over after dinner to do his homework with us – and ended up playing some video games with Patrick and Scott.

Doing my own part-time job work wasn't an option earlier tonight, but that's why I'd put in the extra time last night. I helped out around the computer store and data center instead; and only took care of a bit of family business work after Rowen and I went to bed for the night. I was already changed and in Rowen's bed working on my computer by the time she caught up with me after saying goodnight to Tim out on the front porch. Once she joined me there; we had a nice little bedtime chat while I did my usual bedtime computer checks and that bit of work that had come up through my email. I didn't do any archive or language studies tonight; so we'll actually be off to sleep in decent time – if not quite as early as I've been able to manage on my latest few Wednesday nights.

I'll make up for that extra sleep tomorrow night, so I should take advantage of the opportunity and get started on that down time. Rowen's having fun with some Halloween-themed YouTube music vids, so I'll even have some music to fall asleep with – unless she passes out first.

That really is all I have tonight, so if you're looking for more exciting Magi news for today; you'll need to check out Mom's or Aunt Leanne's journals instead. I think I'll wait until I'm an adult to do that kind of reading, but even if I wanted to do that now; I seriously doubt that either of them are taking the time to write those updates tonight.

While you're potentially pondering the why for that in your 'now', I'm going to not do that at all and get to sleep now instead; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Happy 33rd Birthday, Aunt Leanne!

If the smiles we saw on the faces of the three parents who were here tonight after their sleepover in the city was any indication; they definitely had more fun last night than their kids did – and probably this morning too. As mentioned with my last update, and many others before it; I do not require or want the details; but I am glad that they had fun – and that Aunt Leanne has had a happy birthday.

Here at home, Tai Chi was for one for me this morning; breakfast with the Emersons was very entertaining; and Rowen and I managed to get ready for school with minimum bathroom time interference from Patrick and Scott. At school, Halloween is the top chat topic, and while the kids are getting very excited; the teens are just as interested in the festivities too – particularly the dance a week from tomorrow and the Haunted Halloween Walk on that Saturday night. The school Haunted House is being planned now too, and some teens are working on it; but I haven't helped out with any of that yet – mostly because I'm already busy enough right now.

Our football game tomorrow night is definitely on the news radar for the guys now too, and Tim is particularly fired up. That's partly because his father and Uncle Lee are going to be there for the game; but mostly because they'll be leaving from there for their college football guys' weekend away – and he's going to get to see Kyle play for his college team. Nobody will read this until long after that game is played, but if the odds-makers knew that Kyle is going to be playing that game with his father and cousin in the stadium; they might think about changing the odds for his team. Since they probably don't know that; it could be a bad day for some gamblers.

That got a bit off-topic.

Michael's excited about their trip too, but he's also wishing that I could be going along – and made sure that I know he'll miss me while he's away. Maybe Tim will do better with that for Rowen tomorrow night, but he's been a bit oblivious to that – and the difference between how Michael's acting around me and what he's doing with Rowen. I can assure you that Rowen has noticed, though, and while she understands; she'd also be a lot happier if Tim would get a clue and realize just how much she's going to miss him this weekend. I'd mention something about it to Michael, but it wouldn't mean much to Rowen if Tim didn't figure this out on his own.

If you're reading this some day in our future, Tim, regardless of how you ended up handling that tomorrow; that kind of thing still applies to girls of all ages. ;^)

Moving along, Rowen and I had our cheerleading practice at lunchtime, and the weather was nice enough again to do that outdoors. While Michael and Tim were busy with their football practice after school; I went home to help Mom with Ethan and Ehlana – and to get ready for Aunt Leanne's birthday dinner at the Inn. That needed to start early enough to not get in the way of game night, and since Michael was being allowed to do that with me; he barely had time to get cleaned up and changed after his practice before needing to meet us in the dining room at the Inn.

He and I were a bit on the edges of the action during the dinner because we were on kid control duty with all of the younger kids except for Zack – though he came to hang out with us a couple of times too when he got bored with what the grown-ups were doing. It's sometimes a bit strange to do these little family and friends events now that I am one of the teens and expected to help out with the kids; but the only thing I really miss with that is getting to spend time with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne – or some of my other, favorite adults. That won't ever be the same as it was when Mom and I first moved here and I got to have Mom, Dad, and Aunt Leanne to myself a lot of the time, but the trade-offs have been fairly awesome; so I'll try not to feel too sad about what we don't have time for or can't do anymore.

While we weren't in the middle of the action during dinner, Michael and I did have fun with the twins and the other kids; and game night was great too. We didn't win the junior championship this week, but Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam won the senior title for her birthday. I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone reading this in the future who knows that they're usually near the top of the rankings anyway, but in this particular case; there was some scoring irregularities that kept moving them up to the top of the scoreboard pretty much regardless of how they actually did in each game. That does happen occasionally on game nights for other people too; but it was apparently a first for Aunt Leanne; and I'm not sure how she felt about it.

You would have won anyway, Aunt Leanne; and your friends would have realized that if they hadn't started having more fun with playing that little birthday game with you. Do you feel better about that now? Yes, I could have told you that tonight; but isn't it more fun this way? Happy Birthday again whenever it is in the future that you're reading this!

All of that fun meant that Michael and I still needed to do our homework after we got home, and we did that at his house – and got sent there right after the games ended while his parents took care of the clean-up. Miranda teased us about our total lack of progress on that when they got home with Rebecca, but trust me; the minor make-out session while we had the alone time opportunity was worth getting teased about and needing to stay up later doing our homework – and the rest of my work and studying tonight.

I'd better not spend any more time thinking about that or I might not get to sleep right away – which I need to do now that I'm down to having a couple of hours or so of nap time before I'll need to be up and running again.

It was eleven by the time I got home. Ethan and Ehlana were already sleeping by then, but Mom was doing some work in the office. We did my Magi lesson while she kept working, and she mostly just supervised while I practiced my lesson. I was ready for some Jacuzzi time after that; and multi-tasked that with my language and archives studies. It was one-thirty by the time I crawled into bed with Mandy, and I still had all of my family business work to get done along with the usual nightly computer checks. That was more than two hours ago, and while I'm tired; it's not as bad as I expected it to be thanks to that extra nap time at Rowen's last night.

We won't get to do that Friday night, though, and while Rowen and I are doing another sleepover; it won't be starting until after we get home from the game. With the boys away, we'll probably be sitting up late too – and possibly watching Halloween movies. I'm sure that'll keep us from envisioning scary college stories with our boyfriends in starring roles!

Okay, that's pretty much it for tonight, and I really should get started on that nap now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, October 17, 2014

This has been a fairly busy day, and Rowen and I have had fun with our sleepover so far; which is why it's also late, and I'm going to need to keep this short.

First up is the usual Friday night football report, and despite having a nice-weather day for the game; we won our match against Varney by a score of sixty-eight to forty-nine. I'm sure that you can guess from the score that defense wasn't exactly a strong point for either team; though I will mention that we held Varney to four touchdowns and seven field goals despite the fact that they did score on each of their offensive drives. The Varney defense had the same problem; except they gave up eight touchdowns and four field goals.

That made for another twenty point night for Jason Johnson, so he was puffed up beyond belief again; but Tim was the star tonight with four of our touchdowns. He was definitely fired up about having his father and uncle at an away game; and I'm sure he's very happy about being able to tell Kyle that they won tonight when they see him tomorrow. Michael was happy to see his best friend in the spotlight tonight, and while he only scored one touchdown; he played a good game – and was also responsible for shutting down several of those Varney drives while knocking down passes while on defense.

Michael and Tim left as soon as they'd finished getting cleaned up after the game, so Rowen and I didn't get to have much time to say goodbye to them – or share much in the way of hugs and kisses. They were on the road before we – the cheerleaders – were ready to leave for home; and I'm missing Michael as much as I expected to. Not having our own cell phones is also inconvenient for the first time in our lives, but while we can't text or call each other; Rowen and I did send email to our boyfriends after getting home; and they'll probably get them sometime after getting to their hotel – by morning at the latest.

It was midnight by the time we got back to town, and after twelve-thirty by the time Rowen and I got home to my house after helping with the usual post-game work at the school. Everyone was already in bed by then, but Mom got up and had a little chat with us in my room before going back to sleep again – or should I be more specific, and say back to bed? Let's not go there.

Rowen and I got ready for bed after that; cuddled with Mandy and our computers; and she's been watching more Halloween YouTube videos while I've been doing my nightly computing and some family business work that came up. I'm glad that we're doing the sleepover because we've been able to keep entertained while missing our boyfriends, but we've also got a major yard work day ahead of us; and need to crash for a few hours.

That'll mean skipping the news from the rest of the day, but there wasn't really anything else all that exciting in my personal day anyway despite being very busy; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Time for another micro-update; this one live from Rowen's bedroom!

Yes, we're doing another sleepover; but sleep is going to be the operative word today. While our boyfriends were having a football play day and fun watching Kyle help his team in a big way to win their game today; we were each helping out with major fall clean-up days at home. While I mostly worked with Dad; Rowen worked with her father and brother at their house and Patricia ran the store for the day while they were busy.

Tai Chi by the river was nice, but very chilly. The work all morning and for about half of the afternoon was tough and often messy; but I also got to put up the decorations after that with some help from Ethan and Ehlana. We also talked about Halloween costumes while doing that, and though we didn't come up with any decisions on that; we will soon so that we have time to get them ready over the next two weeks.

After we were finished working, I took a shower; packed a bag; and headed for Rowen's house for the night. We had a frozen pizza and wings easy-dinner; watched a Halloween movie in the living room with her parents, Patrick, and Scott; and then Rowen and I came up to bed because we're beat and have had enough fun for the day.

We've each had one email from our respective boyfriends, but they sent them this morning; and have probably just been out of the hotel since then and unable to check in with us. I'm sure that they would have taken Kyle out for dinner after the game, and may have had a party to go to after that – or at least some hang out time with Kyle on campus tonight. They won't be home until late tomorrow afternoon or evening; so we'll likely have to wait for the weekend report from them until then – unless they write to us tonight after they get back to their hotel again.

I'm not staying up just on a maybe that they'll be online later, though, and Rowen and I really are ready to nap now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Happy 17th Birthday, Chris!

We basically had no involvement in his birthday, and he was away most of the weekend with some friends, but we did send a gift for him up to Woodvale; and Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana had a nice chat with Uncle Rick, Aunt Melissa, and Dawn later this afternoon that he and Martin weren't back home yet to join in on. I was at the Inn while that was happening; but I'll get to that in a bit.

First up today was Tai Chi for one, and though it was cold out; I went outside to do that anyway to enjoy the beautiful pre-dawn morning. Breakfast with the Emersons was as entertaining as always, and after doing that with them twice in one week; I've been reminded that I need to spend more time with Rowen's parents than I have been lately. As usual, I'll have to add that to the list of things that I don't have enough time for; but maybe I'll get a few of those items crossed off now and then too – or not.

While not seeing Michael all day on Saturday was strange because I knew he wasn't in town, it was different today starting with going to church and being there without him. I didn't get to hold his hand during the service or Sunday school; there were no boyfriend hugs and kisses; and I didn't walk him to the Inn after the service on my way home either. Mom and Dad didn't plan our afternoon play adventure because I was missing Michael, but I'm glad that they did set it up; because it really helped me a lot with that – and helped Rowen too.

I don't know why we haven't done it before now, but we went out to a farm that wasn't far from the highway and about ten miles this side of Meadowvale to pick our own pumpkins at their pumpkin patch. 'We' included my family, my uncles, Aunt Leanne, Leah, Zack, Rowen, Aiden, and Naomi. Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah were ordered to stay home due to the advanced stage of their pregnancies; but we brought back special treats for them to help make up for that – not that they weren't okay with the quiet time anyway.

Speaking of pregnancies, I'm overdue for an update on that; so let's digress for a moment and do that.

Aunt Deborah can pretty much switch her countdown to due date in weeks or days now; since she barely has a month left to go for that. Aunt Grace is due a week or so after that; though she's been making some jokes about going first or trading due dates with Aunt Deborah. Both sets of Moms and babies are doing just fine, and while we're all looking forward to the new additions to our family; the big issue with both of my aunts over the next few weeks is going to be getting ready for each of them to be off work for a while at the lab and clinic respectively. For Aunt Deborah, those plans are pretty much the same as they were for when she was off work with Leah; though having two doctors will help too. Mom's going to help out at the lab; but most people won't know that. In that case, Uncle Adam will 'officially' be in charge of everything while Aunt Grace is off; and she plans on continuing to work part-time or from home starting sometime in January.

Okay, back to the pumpkin patch!

We had separate lunches; met up at our house; and then had a mini-convoy out to the farm. In addition to the pumpkin picking, there was also a seasonal shop that was a fall produce and Halloween version of the Christmas tree farm store; so there was more to do that just pick out a handful of pumpkins. There was also a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and back; and that was a lot the same as the Christmas tree farm too. The two places aren't that far apart, and though I have no idea whether the owners of the two places know each other; there is a good chance that one of them got the idea for their business from the other.

The hayride and pumpkin picking came first; we picked up some pies, bags of apples, jugs of apple cider, and a few other treats at the little store before heading home again; and Rowen and I had a lot of fun with Ethan, Ehlana, and the other kids. The Dads in our group also got some awesome pictures too – including some of my personal favorites – like the one of Zack and Leah 'riding' a giant pumpkin that was on display outside of the store. Some of us needed to be home in decent time for other commitments, and though I hadn't really planned on helping out at the Inn tonight, I called over there to see if Michael was home yet, and after finding out that he wasn't going to be back until after dinner sometime and they were also very busy and short-handed; I decided to surprise Miranda and show up to give her a hand.

I love you too, Miranda; and you're welcome again! ;^)

That meant missing out on some fun at home and dinner with Mom, Dad, the twins, Aiden, Naomi, and their families; but Mom did save me a slice of pie that I got around to having after getting home from the Inn and a little visit with Michael at his house after we closed the Inn for the night.

While Miranda was happy to have me there, I didn't actually spend much time with her because she was too busy in the dining room. I did get to hang out with Rebecca, though; and we had a blast even while working hard to first get the food cooked and out to the buffet tables; and then help with the clean-up and dishwashing. I also got to here all of the latest teen news – including about the double date that Rebecca and Jen did with their boyfriends on Saturday night – though that was just dinner and a movie night at Rebecca's house while Michael was away and her parents were busy at the Inn.

I was not surprised to find out that Jenny had suggested the idea – or that she and Lance regularly found excuses for both of them to not be in the same room with Rebecca and Lucas for long 'breaks' of various kinds – at least until Jacob and Miranda got home.

It felt strange to be at the Inn without Michael, but it was a lot of fun to be there to help welcome him home when he walked into the kitchen at a bit after eight o'clock – especially since Miranda didn't tell him I was there. I also really love him; and loved getting to see the look on his face when he first saw me. For those next few moments while he walked over to me and we shared a long hug and kiss, there wasn't anyone else in the room; and I really, really hope that every girl in the world gets to experience that feeling at least once. I'd be okay with feeling that with Michael every day forever!

The whistles and laughs eventually got our attention, and Michael got razzed by the other guys; but we didn't care. We also didn't get much time for a reunion either, because after spending a minute or two with his father and Rebecca; we both got to work – again for me. The cooking for the second buffet was done by then, but there was still lots of work to get done; and it was going on ten o'clock by the time we closed the Inn and walked home. I stayed with Michael, and we had a little weekend update bedtime story to go with our snack and drinks. Michael did most of the storytelling, starting with the Friday night football game from his perspective and then moving on to the long drive to their hotel; the lack of sleep there; everything they did on Saturday; their second night at the hotel; and then the bonus play time with Kyle today before they hit the road again after having lunch with Kyle.

There's something else I'm going to add here for future reference without specifying what it is; and this is strictly for the Magi power issue involved – not to embarrass Michael or tease him in the future when he reads this some day.

While Michael's stories were very entertaining, I know there was something that happened to him that he left out specifically because he hasn't figured out how to tell me about it. Yes, I know what it is, but the Magi part of that wasn't because of me using the Sight. I found out through my empathy and telepathy; and that's why I'm writing about it tonight – because this might be a bit freaky for other Magi. Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I do not go around passively reading the thoughts of other people, but very strong emotions from others can make it nearly impossible for us not to pick up both thoughts and empathic vibes when we're in close proximity to that person. That was why I was able to pick up those thoughts and vibes from Michael tonight despite the fact that I wouldn't intentionally invade his privacy that way.

He does plan on telling me about what happened, so I'll wait until after he does do that to have a little chat with him about this; but I don't think that he'll really mind too much. It's not as though this happens between us all that often – partly because he usually has control of his thoughts and emotions – or we're linked together anyway when we don't and are having a little play time for two. I probably should move on before I start thinking too much about the complete lack of that alone time this weekend – though I'm sure that Mom, Dad, and the twins would be very amused if I skipped Tai Chi in the morning and took Michael somewhere to make out with him until breakfast was ready.

Hmm... I like the way I think sometimes! ;^)

Where was I? Oh yeah – inadvertent telepathic and empathic reception. As I mentioned, that doesn't happen with Michael all that often, but as I think about it; I should report that it does happen more often now with others around me. I'll need to work on that more, and part of it is certainly because I'm growing stronger as a Magi Master even as my physical size is developing; but there are likely other factors too – like going through puberty and other, more basic physiological and even spiritual changes. The only problem I'll have with investigating that will be how to juggle learning more about the passive limits to this ability with respecting the privacy of everyone around me.

Not to mention that when we're talking about strong emotions, there are things that a thirteen-year old girl doesn't need to know about her family, friends, neighbors, or anyone else.

Okay, I'd better move this along. After doing story time with Michael; Jacob, Miranda, and Rebecca all went up to bed or to hit the shower before going to bed; and they left Michael and I alone in the living room to say goodnight to each other before I needed to head home. We had fun doing that, but he was also worn out by then, and I still had a lot to do too; so we kept that little bit of micro play time short. Mom and Dad were still working in the office when I got home, and while I've been too busy with everything else I've had on the go; I did know that Dad was going to need to work late after being busy with other things most of the weekend since getting home from his week in the city.

Since he was up anyway, Mom did a Magi lesson with me despite it already being after eleven by then; which is why I didn't get started on my studies and family business until after midnight. As I mentioned, I had a lot of work to do; and that was nearly four hours ago. I was tempted to use a little bit of time phasing to help out with that; but decided against doing that tonight. Yes, I get more sleep; but the power use is really a wash compared to all other options – including self-healing from extreme fatigue in the morning. Time phasing is really handiest when I need to get something done fast before moving on to something else.

Anyway, the language and archive studies were fine, if a bit boring for the archive assignment; and the family business work was interesting but exhausting; so I am past-ready to get started on my nap time now. I haven't done a college teen update, but there really isn't much to report anyway. My favorite collegians are pretty much just in the middle of a lull in the action between mid-term exams and the Halloween action that will likely keep them entertained for the next couple of weeks – just as it will here.

That does remind me that some Halloween costume decisions were made today while we were on our pumpkin-picking adventure. Ethan and Ehlana have decided not to do a twin thing this year. Ethan is going to be a dragon, and Aiden is going to be a dragon-fighting 'Mike the Knight'. Ehlana and Naomi are going to be good little witches a la Sofia the First. I'm going to miss not having the twins with me for the Halloween party at school this year; but then I'll be busy with the Haunted House in the gym anyway and they're a bit young to help out with scaring the other kids and teens.

I really need to wrap this up and get some down time. There isn't anything else major to report from today, and I'll make sure you get the update on that story Michael still needs to tell me whenever he gets around to doing that. I'm done with the journal news for now, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, October 20, 2014

Congratulations, Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam; and happy belated birthday, Aunt Leanne!

This news won't hit the town grapevine for another week or so, but Mom was first to find out today that Aunt Leanne is pregnant; which means that there is a very good chance that her baby is going to be a bonus birthday present that won't be delivered until next July. While I do not need any details about that, it is going to be a really cool story for them, and for my cousin – particularly when they also have Zack as a days-early birthday gift for Aunt Leanne too. She'd tell you that the days-early part of that was the gift, since going through that on her birthday would have sucked; but I digress.

That was the top story of the day for me – and our family; but there was a lot going on in addition to that. It was cool but nice out this morning, so we're really enjoying the bonus days we're getting for Tai Chi by the river. Michael went back home for breakfast after joining us for that, and it was fairly quiet at our house while I got ready for school and had breakfast with Mom, Dad, and the twins. The top stories at school today included Halloween, football, and in our grade; Michael and Tim's trip to see Kyle's football game. Let's start with number three on that list.

I hadn't seen Tim yesterday after they got back because they'd dropped Michael off at home with his luggage and then Michael had walked over to the Inn. That's why I didn't get to see how Tim was handling what had happened to him and Michael while they were away. From my perspective, knowing what I do from last night; it was tough not to laugh at his avoidance techniques – especially once his weirdness started to get Rowen both suspicious and annoyed. We had a little bedtime chat tonight – Rowen and I – so she's okay now; and we're expecting to have the weird kind of fun continue until the boys get up the nerve to tell us the big story whenever they figure out how to do that.

On the football front, Tim was a hero among the younger guys today thanks to his big plays in the game on Friday night, and with two games left to go in the regular season; there's some real excitement building at the prospect of being in the playoffs again this year – especially since nobody expected that we would be. Yes, we have six wins and just two losses, but our last two games are against division rivals, so that could change very easily; and I really hope that the guys ignore all of the hype and just concentrate on the games. Our offense is making the difference right now, but Coach Robinson can't be happy with our defense giving up points on every drive in that game – something that just didn't happen during the last few seasons.

The Halloween news was mostly about the dating scene for the teens, and the pairings for the dance this Friday night. That isn't a big deal for Rowen and me because we don't expect to have time for more than an appearance at the dance if we get back from the football game in time to do that. The Haunted Halloween Walk on Saturday night was getting a bit of attention too, but the younger kids were more excited about that since they won't be involved in the dance at all. There was lots of talk about costumes for Halloween too, but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I haven't even really talked about whether we're going trick-or-treating yet, let alone what we want to dress up as for the school party or if we do go out.

On the actual school work front, we're doing some testing this week and working on projects that will be due by the end of the month before we move into new study modules for the weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving. The testing is causing a bit of stress with some of my classmates, and Michael, Rowen, and I get asked for help sometimes, but since we're all busy with everything else we have on the go too; those requests don't come very often. I should try and do better helping some of my friends with that – especially now that we're in high school; and it's way more important than anything extra-curricular that we're doing.

That said, cheerleading practice was still near the top of the list for school-time fun – especially since we had such a nice afternoon for being outdoors. Rowen and I stayed after our practice to wait for Michael and Tim, but Michael and I needed to get to his house for dinner by then; so we didn't get any time to hang out together. Dinner with Michael and his family was as awesome as always, and then Rebecca did her homework at the same time that Michael and I did after we finished the kitchen clean-up. I had a guitar lesson with Michael after that; we practiced our music for band and the praise team too; and then I needed to get home so that I could catch the tail-end of our family business and future plans meeting already in progress.

Hearing about Aunt Leanne's news then was great, and there was a pause in the meeting while I got to hear that story and spend some time doing hugs and kisses with my aunt and uncle; but then they got back to the meeting while I spent a few minutes catching up on what I'd missed by having Ethan and Ehlana flash me the report so far telepathically. To keep that fairly short, the med center construction is a bit ahead of schedule; Uncle Adam and Ehlana are continuing their research into weather-resistant crops at the lab; the outdoor side of construction for the second apartment building and new houses is already starting to wind down to get ready for winter; and there are a few high school seniors being helped out with future education and career planning to help meet some of the needs we're going to have here by the time they start graduating from college in five or six years.

I'd better add in just a little more detail than that for a couple of those things. Ehlana is working on the crops, starting with wheat, because she knows how critical food supplies are – particularly in the poorer countries; and the severe droughts in particular are going to be a problem if they continue for extended periods of time in places where big crop harvests are counted on to meet global demand. While that work is still in its infancy, we do have some advantages over other researchers; and Ehlana will get results. I'm admittedly biased; but my little sister really is off-the-charts brilliant. She thinks that it's funny that I think that about her when other people think the same thing about me, but I know the difference; and so does Ehlana.

Yes, Ethan is brilliant too, but as with me; his is in a different way that either Ehlana or me.

An easy way to think about the difference between us, Ehlana can dream and create; Ethan will quite possibly know it all someday; and I can understand and do things better than most. There are reasons why we've been given our respective gifts, and I won't get into them; but I can assure you that it's going to make for an awesome combination – and come in very handy in the future!

Moving along, Uncle Adam, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Deborah are looking forward to when their new medical center will be ready to open next June, and while they still have lots of time; they are starting to plan for that move – and all of the work that will be involved to do that. They will be getting mostly all-new equipment; but there will still be some things that they'll keep – particularly the antiques and the medicine-related family heirlooms. Uncle Adam's healing gift likely comes down to him through a distant Palmer relative; but the doctors in town have been from the Johnson family for centuries now. Some of those antiques may seem strange in an ultra-modern medical center; but I'm sure that Aunt Deborah will find a way to make it work.

I should also mention that the timing for the medical center opening will work out pretty well for her too. She'll be busy with that at the same time that Uncle Nick will be off for the summer and able to help out more with the kids. Speaking of that, I already did a baby update for Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah, so I won't do that again; but some planning for their respective maternity leaves were talked about again tonight. We will have everything ready to go for dealing with that at the lab and clinic by the end of this month; so we'll also be able to adjust if either of my aunts need to stop work early or have any other issues.

The new housing being built now is mostly to get ready for new needs we'll have next summer, and while we won't need all of the apartments in the new apartment building next summer; those buildings are important – particularly for both younger and older adults. We already know from the first apartment building that the seniors there really appreciate having elevators and other amenities they can't have in older houses; and the younger singles and couples like having their own places without either the work that goes along with owning or renting a house or the inconvenience of the walk-up apartments above the stores on the main drag. I don't know if I'll ever want to go back to living in an apartment again or not. That worked for Mom and me when we needed it to; but I love having a yard and all of the other advantages of having a house – even though it really is a lot more work.

Let's keep this update rolling along, or it'll be time for me to just get up and started on my Tuesday by the time I get this done. On the non-family side of the future plans news, we had two main items. The second-hand charity store remodel work will be done by the end of the month; and the owners will be able to start setting up their shop the first week of November. They will have it ready to open the week of Thanksgiving; which should make for a great start to their first year of business. Our only involvement in that is that Mom, my aunts, Ehlana, Leah, and I will all be going through our wardrobes and putting together donations to give to them. Since I can't wear any of my clothes from last winter, and won't be able to wear any of my current summer clothes by next summer; I'll probably have the biggest donation. I'm sure that Mom will weed out her closet pretty thoroughly too – and then need to go shopping with Abby to pick up a few new replacements.

The other business we discussed tonight was the Inn. It's time to start seriously talking with Miranda and with Nathaniel Ayres about moving the Haberdashery so that Jacob and Miranda can take over that building and expand the Inn to accommodate their growing business and be ready for when they have a second world-class chef available to really help them to handle all of that new business. I know, Jake and Stephanie are only in their second year of college, but they're doing four-year programs; and we're talking about a major remodel that will probably take a year and a half or more to complete – and that can't even start until after the Haberdashery is moved. There's a good chance that will be hard for Uncle Nick's father, since their store has been there as long as the Inn and Emporium have been; but it solves several other problems – including the lack of need for the apartments above his store that can be used for more hotel rooms instead. I don't really want to get into what Ethan, Ehlana, and I see for the future of the Haberdashery, but I hope that when you read this someday in the future, Mr. Ayres; you'll be okay with the reasons we have for knowing this is something that is as important for you and your family as it is for the Stones.

There were lots of little items that we covered tonight, but I won't get into everything – though now that I think about that; I'm overdue for an update on the solar-wind farm project. Mr. Sheldon is doing a great job with that, and while the work will move indoors for the winter; we're looking at mid-summer to be ready to go online. The best parts of that project is that we'll usually produce way more energy than our town needs; the extra power will be sold into the grid; and we will have very little to worry about anymore with losing power during a storm because a lot of the new infrastructure between the power farm and town will be underground. That'll be nice for all of us, but particularly good for the lab and medical center.

Okay, enough of the meeting news, or I really might as well just stay awake until tomorrow night. Our guests didn't head home until after eleven; I helped Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana off to bed; and then she did my Magi lesson with me before giving me my archive homework and sending me off to bed at twelve-thirty. That was more than three and a half hours ago; and I've been working and studying hard since then. That's included an hour of language study, another hour and a half on that archive homework; and an hour of family business work that could've been two easily enough if I'd wanted to keep working. Yes, I did get a lot of work done, but that sometimes feels never-ending – and I'm trying to work ahead knowing that I have a couple of very busy weekends coming up that won't leave me with time for much family business work or studying.

I'm sure that my Tuesday is going to be just as busy – especially with cheerleading, band, and praise team practices. That should be interesting to get through on a couple of hours of sleep. I'll predict that a Magi-powered self-healing for fatigue will be in my future – in about two hours. The nap time is still important, though, so I'm going to get to that right now.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I'm writing this now, right before morning Tai Chi, because I fell asleep while doing my family business work. One moment, I closed my eyes to rest them, and the next; it was time to get up and ready to go for the day.

Michael's going to be here soon, and I had to finish that work in progress; so I'll need to keep this very short.

We've had another awesome fall-weather day, though it was chilly this morning – yesterday morning – for Tai Chi by the river. The sun and warm was nice for our cheerleading practice at noon, and the boys enjoyed some bonus pick-up football while Rowen and I were busy; but I wish that we'd been able to enjoy some outdoor time after school instead of being busy with band or football practice; and then Michael and I were busy with our teen praise team practice after dinner, so outdoor adventures weren't an option then either. We did still have fun; but I am missing the random acts of fun that were still an option on school nights last year. Michael and I basically haven't even gone biking at all except with Ethan and Ehlana a couple of times when playing with them at the park.

Anyway, I really do need to keep this short; so let's keep moving along. All three of my practices went well; Michael was with me for dinner in between our after-school and evening group activities; and then he came home with me for the rest of the evening so we could do our homework and have a Magi lesson with Mom after Ethan and Ehlana went to bed for the night. We had a little bit of alone time in the lounge after that too; but nothing particularly hot – just a minor make-out session before he needed to get home and I needed to get to work.

As mentioned, I fell asleep while working on the family business, but that was after spending an hour and a half on my language studies; another hour in the archives; and an hour and twenty minutes on the family business before the lights went out for me for a couple of hours. I'm about to start a work day now, and I'm obviously in need of some extra sleep; so I'll try to get my work done early so that'll be an option.

For now, though, I need to get up and ready for Tai Chi; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

I have totally hit the wall tonight, but instead of falling asleep while in the middle of my work; I've gotten everything done now and will be heading into nap mode as soon as I finish this update.

I went to school; had a cheerleading practice after that; and worked my tail off for five hours after getting home – including working while having dinner. My Magi lesson was done with the work; and I practiced some time-phase adaptations to compensate for external factors that affect the activity inside of the time-phase field. Let's get into that some other time, no pun intended; but we were basically looking at ways to deal with things like power supply and internet access while in the time-phase. Anyone reading this in the future who might remember dial-up internet instead of high-speed would have an idea of the kind of problem we have in time-phase for surfing the web.

Anyway, we had another decent weather day that I didn't get to enjoy enough of while busy with my classes, studies, and family business work; but there were some cameo moments of fun here and there. The only fun I really want to have right now, though, is of the unconscious variety; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

It's been another long, busy day; and I've worked late to get ready for taking most of the weekend off for football and the Haunted Halloween Walk.

We've had some rain off and on today, and we were indoors for Tai Chi; but only because it was damp outside at the time. Michael stayed for breakfast, and then we both needed to rush a bit to get ready for school and meet up with Rowen and Rebecca. The rainy walk there wasn't all that exciting, and I'd say that pretty much describes our school day too. Even our indoor cheerleading practice at lunchtime was a bit subdued; though Jenny's getting fired up about her fifteenth birthday tomorrow. She seems to have very high expectations for what Lance will do to impress her tomorrow, but I have no idea how he'll pull that off when we'll be at an away football game and won't be back until late – as in might not even catch the tail-end of the school dance tomorrow night kind of late.

The fun part of my day started after school when I went to the Inn with Rebecca while Michael was busy with his football practice. It wasn't raining by then, but the guys still got pretty wet because the field was still soaked when they went out to play. I was happy to stay dry; do my homework with Rebecca; and then help out with the minor dinner rush. There really wasn't a lot of business tonight, and that was mostly because people around town are probably saving up for the extra meals out this weekend and next. With Halloween on a Friday night this year; there's a good chance that Miranda and Jacob will have a full house in the dining room with all of the country parents going there to eat while the kids go out trick-or-treating.

Michael skipped helping with the kitchen work tonight and did his homework after his practice. Rebecca and I had dinner with him after that, and once the clean-up was in full swing; we all went out into the dining room to help with the set-up for game night. We had a small turn-out for the gaming tonight too; which had a lot to do with why Michael and I won another junior championship. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne won the senior title for the week; but only a few of us know why Aunt Leanne was so fired up tonight.

That's going to be fun when the news hits the grapevine sometime next week!

The rest of my night has pretty much been a rinse and repeat from most Thursdays after game night; though I did help with the dining room clean-up before walking home with Michael and his family and doing the goodnight hugs and kisses with all of them before coming home. Mom did my Magi lesson before Ethan and Ehlana went to bed because they wanted to do some of their college homework first; we both took care of getting them tucked in for the night with some bonus story time from Dad while he took a work break; and then I came up to my room and got started on my language studies. That was more than three and a half hours ago, so I'm again running out of steam fast; but at least I will be able to take the weekend off now except for dealing with any work-related email that comes up between now and Sunday night.

I guess that's it for tonight, but feel free to flip to the next digital page, dear future Magi reader; since the next couple or three days are probably going to be very interesting with everything we have going on around here! I'll have to wait to see it all happen, though, and need to get started on my nap to be ready for all of that action; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Happy 15th Birthday, Jenny!

While I needed to lead off with that, and have a bit of Jenny birthday news to cover with this update; there has also been a lot going on today; and I want to start the report with the football news.

I should probably start with the news that Mom was one of our cheerleading squad drivers today, and while she was busy doing that, Dad brought Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden to the game after he was finished work; and they both had a surprise for me in Brookbridge. I didn't find out until shortly before game time that they'd invited the Malloys to come and catch the game with them – and see me working the sidelines with the cheerleaders. Having my own little group of fans at the game definitely had me fired up; and Michael assured me that my hyper-cheering tonight made a big difference in his game play too.

That's a particularly good thing for our team because he had the winning touchdown – though Jason Johnson ran around patting himself on the back after the game because it was his successful extra point that technically won the game for us. I really don't want to pick on Jason, but when Michael and Tim scored three touchdowns each; I don't think it's too much to suggest that the credit for the win should be shared. Speaking of that, I should also mention here that Jeff Morris deserves a lot of credit too – since he was on the quarterback end of those six touchdowns. I haven't pointed that out often enough in my football reports, but while Jeff isn't flashy and larger-than-life like Kyle Landry; he is finding a way to get the job done and our team captain deserves more attention for his efforts than he usually gets.

I'll also add that while I love seeing Michael and Tim doing so well, it was a tough game for our running backs. Brookbridge stuffed our run game all night; kept Caleb and Lucas bottled up; and pretty much turning the game into a shootout that they expected to win. The Brookbridge players and fans probably thought they'd succeed too – right up until they ran out of time for one last comeback after Michael scored on our final drive of the game. Michael and Tim each had one good defensive play to help keep Brookbridge from that comeback too; so I had lots to cheer about right up until the end of the game.

On the sidelines, having the Malloys there was my personal highlight of the night; though I didn't actually get to spend a lot of time with them at half-time or after the game. Jenny's birthday was also a big deal for our squad; and she was particularly excited that Lance drove all the way from Maple Valley to watch her – I mean watch the game – and he took her out to celebrate her birthday after the game. We – her fellow cheerleaders – had a little party for her before the game; but her non-boyfriend highlight of the day was getting her learner's permit. There were lots of jokes going on about that today, but since I'm only a bit more than a year away from that teen milestone now; you won't hear me making any comments about any other new teen drivers.

Getting that license is a much bigger deal for the farm kids anyway; since town kids don't exactly do a lot of daily driving anyway even after they have their licenses.

Okay, let's not get bogged down with that and move along – or back up a bit, in this case.

While I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the Malloys, they enjoyed spending that time with Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. We've had awesome weather today with the temperature still in the seventies at game time; so it was a perfect night for some family fun and sports. It's only been a month since my last pregnancy update for Angela, but I'll mention that she and the baby are both doing just fine; and she's finished with the morning sickness issues now that's she's closing in on the half-way point in her pregnancy. I'm really glad that I got to see them tonight, since there's a really good chance that I won't get to do that again until after their baby is born – even if Dad will likely still see them once or twice a month between now and then while working in the city.

That pretty much covers the football news; so let's move on to talk about the school Halloween dance. We missed most of it while we were at the game and then coming home, and by the time we had the gear put away; there wasn't much time left to do more than make an appearance – which only about half of the football players and cheerleaders did. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were with that group; but we didn't stay long. Michael and I danced to a couple of songs; we visited with a few friends; and then I brought him home with me while Rowen took Tim home to her house so that we could each have a bit of couples-alone time.

Mom and Dad were still awake when we got there, and we had a little chat with them; but they'd already put Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden to bed by then. That made it easy for Michael and I to hang out in the lounge; pretend to watch a Halloween movie; and make out until he needed to be home for the night. I'd been very tempted to ask Mom and Dad to let me keep him for a sleepover too; but resisted the urge – mostly because that would have been weird with four little kids in the house with us.

That does have me thinking that we're overdue for a teen camping adventure – even if we'd need to do that indoors instead of in tents. I should see what I can do about that for an upcoming weekend!

I've totally skipped the news for the rest of the day so far, but there really isn't a lot to write about. Tai Chi was outdoors and by the river; the rest of the pre-school morning was fairly standard and uneventful; and the top story of the school day was Jenny's birthday – and the little party she had at lunchtime – before heading off to earn her learner's permit sometime between lunch and when Mom picked us up for the drive to Brookbridge. 'Us' for that included Jenny, Tammy, Rowen, and me – the four 'junior' cheerleaders; and we had Rebecca with us too while the 'senior' cheerleaders were in another minivan with a Palmer family driver-volunteer.

While I'm thinking about Rebecca, I should mention that she didn't go to the dance with Lucas after we got back from the game. They also didn't go out with Jenny and Lance; and didn't do something else together either. He needed to head home after getting back; and will apparently be having a tough work day tomorrow that won't be any easier after getting pounded on all night at the game by the Brookbridge defense. I'd help him out with that if I could get away with it; but that isn't an option. Rebecca and Lucas are one more good reason for why I should work on setting up that teen camping night, though; so I'll definitely get on that soon.

Lucas isn't the only teen booked to work on Saturday, and I'm one of them; so I should wrap this up and get some sleep – especially since I want to be fully-charged and ready for a fun play night after the work. The Haunted Halloween Walk should be awesome tomorrow night – especially when we're supposed to have the great weather continue all weekend. I know that a lot of the teens try to play it cool about the annual walk, but it's still one of my favorite events of the year in Witch Falls; and I'm sure that I'll always love getting to see the skits and have Miranda guide us through the ghostly history of our town.

Maybe I'll even join the troupe that puts the show on in a few years – if I can ever add something like that to my already crowded fall schedule.

Anyway, to wind this down, after Michael went home; I hopped into bed with Mandy and have been working on my computer since then. While working on the family business wasn't in my weekend plans, one of my projects needed a bit of work done on it tonight to keep the process moving on it; so I took care of my end of that before moving on to the rest of my usual nightly computer checks. There isn't anything else to add from any of that; though I'll mention that we're keeping an eye on Hathorne Industries right now – and will keep doing that through until after Halloween. That isn't really because we're expecting any problems with them coming here to Witch Falls, but this has been a big time of year for them when it comes to some of their plots and games getting planted or harvested. We'd like to intervene whenever possible, and while we actually do get to do that now and then; the downside of keeping an eye on things is that we also get frustrated about things that we do see and can't do anything about.

That's an appropriately scary topic for Halloween, but I've had enough fun for today, and it really is time for some quality napping; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

This update is coming to you in the early hours of the morning because we've been busy having fun all night – particularly with the Haunted Halloween Walk and the teen sleepover adventure that we set up earlier today. I'll get to all of that in a minute; but let's start this report from the beginning of the day.

Tai Chi by the river was as fun as always with bonus aunt, uncle, and cousin company – though Zack didn't exercise with us – he sat in his stroller and watched the show while we worked through our warm-ups and forms. It's been a while since we've done that with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne; and I think that she wanted to come over today because we're running out of time for outdoor Tai Chi – plus she might not be in the mood to exercise at the same time we do for a while once she starts dealing with the morning sickness that could hit any day now. They had breakfast with us, and so did Michael; but then they all left to get on with their own chores and plans for the day while Dad and I got to work in the yard and Mom took care of Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden while doing the usual Saturday morning house cleaning and laundry.

Thanks to the big yard work day last weekend, the work today was a bit easier; and we were done by one o'clock when we stopped for lunch – or more accurately; we didn't stop to eat until the work was finished. We've had a gorgeous weather day, so going out to play after that was an option; and I met up with Michael, Tim, and Rowen to do that after lunch. We took Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden along with us for that to give Mom and Dad some time to do some business-type work in the office without having kids to deal with too; and we biked over to the park to play for a few hours while Michael was on his afternoon break. The teen sleepover plans started to come together then, but the fun at the park included a pick-up football game that Michael and Tim played in – and had Ethan and Aiden do with them for a while too; and the playground action with all four younger kids and some of their friends that included some quality time practicing our pretending skills as the park was temporarily infested with kid and teen ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other Halloween-themed creatures.

Some of the guys also kept an eye on the college football games using tablets or phones, and Tim was regularly doing that too; but in addition to the teen sleepover talk; the other top chat topic for Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I was what we were going to do for Halloween and what our costumes were going to be this year. Our plans for Halloween are still tentative, but we are not going trick-or-treating for sure, and if the weather cooperates; we may be handing out candy at my house and doing a Halloween Haunt. We'll work on that next week, but we're not going to go crazy on that until we know for sure that we won't be getting rained on or something; since we would be doing that outdoors and it wouldn't be fun if we were cold and wet. As for the costumes, the boys are going to be zombies; and Rowen and I are going to dress up as ghouls – I mean girls – from Monster High. None of that is particularly original, but we're also going to be very busy this week – especially with the football game on Thursday night this week because of Halloween being on Friday.

Since Miranda was busy with the Haunted Halloween Walk tonight, I went to the Inn with Michael to help out with the dinner rush, and while his Mom couldn't skip working in the dining room with just one extra set of hands; we did all put in extra effort so that we could all be done work early before getting started on our Halloween play time. I'm skipping the details, but by the time we closed the Inn for the night, my sleepover plans were approved; and the guests included Michael, Tim, Rowen, Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Lance. By the time I met up with Mom, Dad, and the twins; Ethan and Ehlana had gotten approvals for sleepovers too – at Aiden's and Naomi's houses.

I wonder why they didn't want to hang out with four teen couples tonight?

Actually, I don't; but I'll get to that in a bit.

The food and game booths were set up along Witch Falls Road by the time Michael and I left the Inn; the road was closed to traffic; and there were already lots of people gathering to wait for the first walking tours to start. We went home first, and while Michael also packed an overnight bag before meeting up with me again at my house; we both took the time to hit the showers and get changed before heading back to Witch Falls Road with my family to get started on our evening entertainment plans. Since we still had Naomi and Aiden with us then, we also met up with the Drapers and Seagers; and Rowen and Tim caught up with Michael and me not long after we started playing some of the games – all of us trying to win some prizes for the younger kids – including Hailey and Eli. We needed to add Zack to the kid prize-winning mission when he joined the group along with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle, Mark, and Aunt Grace; but we had to split up getting that done before and after our turn going on the Haunted Halloween Walk.

As always, that was the best part of the evening entertainment, and though I should probably want to share Miranda to give more people a chance to do the walk with the best story-teller in town; I'm going to be a little selfish and just be glad that she wants to lead our group each year as much as I want to hear the stories from her instead of one of the other walk 'narrators'. The actors in the skits change a bit each year for various reasons, but the skits don't change much; and some of the props are the same as they were back when the Haunted Halloween Walk was started.

I was thinking about that a bit tonight while on the walk – what it must have been like back when the first group of drama and Halloween enthusiasts wanted to start doing the walk. That was back in the fifties – the nineteen-fifties for those of you who might be reading my journal in the future after twenty-fifty. It's funny to think about some of the older seniors in town as being those same young adults and teens; though I totally can see Grandma Eleanor or Grandpa Grant acting in the skits or leading the walks back then. Not so much for some of the other grandparents around town; but then I have no idea what things were really like around here back in the fifties and sixties. Being a Magi back then was probably a very interesting time.

That has me picturing some of them openly using their Mogi gifts in certain situations and not having anyone realize it was anything more than a hallucination; but I mentally digress and should move along.

Having Miranda lead us on the walk was as amazing as always, and the skits were awesome! I loved getting to do that – and do everything else – with my family; but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I also went home early enough to get a few things ready for our sleepover while Mom and Dad spent a little more time with Ethan and Ehlana before sending them off with Aiden, Naomi, and their families for the night. I had to get guest bedrooms ready, so Rowen and I did that while Michael and Tim get things set up in the lounge for a double-feature Halloween movie night. That included picking the movies, getting snacks and drinks ready, and grabbing some extra throw pillows and blankets so that four out of eight of us could be comfortable while sitting or lying on the floor to watch those shows.

Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Lance had been booked for later Haunted Halloween Walks than we were, so it was after ten before they joined us – though Lance had parked his car in our driveway after getting to town before going to hang out with Jenny, Rebecca, and Lucas. By then, we had the work done; and had also put two pizzas in to cook. We all had a little chat with Mom and Dad while we waited for them to be ready; and then we left slices with my parents before heading up to the lounge for the rest of the evening while Mom and Dad opted to do a bit more work before bedtime.

That had nothing to do with keeping an eye on the teens in the house; and they were sleeping long before we were finished watching our second movie. The two older couples in our group got to have the sectional sofa, and though Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I sat on the floor while having our pizza snack and starting to watch the first movie, we were all able to enjoy some couples' cuddle time for most of that next three and a half hours or so; the four of us on the floor paired up and comfortable stretched out on the floor under blankets with pillows to put our heads on.

I'm fairly indifferent to the horror movie genre in general, and prefer the Halloween comedies or family-rated shows; but that isn't because I can be easily grossed-out or scared – I just don't find the stories or special effects interesting. Cuddling with Michael and having fun with our friends was good, though; so I had fun with that and mostly ignored the movies. Rebecca and Lucas were especially happy to be able to spend that time together, since they really don't get to do that very often; and Lance and Jenny were possibly a bit too happy. I don't really want to go there; so let's just say that there was more action going on under their blanket than there was for the rest of us combined and move on.

That does bring us to the pre-bedtime activities, which for Michael and I meant cleaning up from our pizza, drinks, and snacks while everyone else took care of goodnight hugs and kisses before – or while – getting ready for bed. I won't suggest that Michael and I didn't have any hugs and kisses kind of fun too; but that was peck-on-the-cheek entertainment by comparison. Rowen's in bed with Mandy and me right now, and we've been having some girl chat time since saying goodnight to our boys; but Rebecca and Jenny have their own rooms. Rebecca's even in her room right now, and probably sleeping too; but Jenny was not quiet enough for us not to hear her when she left her room and somehow ended up in Lance's room on the second floor. That's weird for us; but probably even worse for Lucas since he's in the room next to Lance's – and in the middle between them and Mom and Dad's room.

I have no idea what you're thinking about that as you read this in the future, but to be honest; I'm mostly just wishing that Rowen or I had the guts to sneak downstairs and go cuddle with our boyfriends too – though since Michael's using Ethan's room; I'd rather have him up here with me instead of sharing a single bed down there. Jenny and Lance are one and two years older than us, though, so maybe we'll have the nerve to try that in a year or two too.

Okay, yes, Michael and I had that sofa sleepover together; but I'm pretty sure that Jenny and Lance are not currently falling asleep from exhaustion like we did that night.

I should probably change the subject before I'll either need to go have a cold shower or sneak off and find out if Michael's still awake and wishing he was cuddling with me as much as I wish I was with him.

While I've been doing my usual bedtime computing, Rowen's been keeping me entertained with her post-movie commentary and some YouTube videos. I don't want to go into the details of some of that; but do want to mention that neither Rowen or I are really warming up to Lance. I'd really like to say that he fits right in with the rest of us; but he just doesn't. That isn't because of anything specific, and he's a nice enough guy; but we just have very different interests and he's definitely one of the small-town teens who dreams of a bright-lights, big-city future. Jenny's really happy, though, and we want to do more with her; so I'll keep inviting Lance to join us for other sleepovers – and we definitely plan on doing more of them. Once a week is probably too much to hope for; but we might be able to get away with once a month – especially if Michael and Rowen can take turns having them at their houses now and then too. I'll keep you posted on whether that works out or not; but I especially want to try and do more to give Rebecca and Lucas some extra chances to do things together.

It's heading toward three-thirty now, and Rowen and I should seriously start thinking about getting some rest – especially since I'm going to help out at the Inn again for the buffets. We'll also need to share bathroom time with Rebecca and Jenny in the morning too, and I'll definitely be drafted to help out with breakfast for ten; so we're going to have a busy morning – at least up until we go to church. I don't have any news from my family business work or email tonight; but I expected it to be a quiet family and friends news night anyway. That won't last much longer, and next week is going to be very busy – especially when we add in some of the bonus entertainment we'll be having – like the official baby news that Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam will have to share with everyone.

All of that can wait for the appropriate future journal updates, though, and I really do need to get started on my nap time now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The temperature is not supposed to be in the eighties for the last Sunday of October here, but I'll take it; and we definitely enjoyed the great weather again today!

We also enjoyed starting the day with Tai Chi by the river; with the bonus entertainment of knowing that Jenny hadn't made it back to her room when we went outside to do that but was miraculously there by the time we got inside again and Mom, Dad, and Michael started working on breakfast.

She was probably just in the bathroom and we missed seeing her. ;^)

Having breakfast, getting ready for church, and cleaning up after we ate was a crazy-busy rush of fun; though Mom and Dad were probably ready for a nap by the time they finished dealing with all of that – and hanging out with eight teens. I'm sure nobody reading this will be shocked to know that I was the most fired up member of our little group. The least enthusiastic person was Lance; and it was fairly obvious that he is not a morning person – though maybe he does better when he gets more sleep than he probably did last night. On the other hand, Jenny seemed to be very happy; and I doubt she got any more rest than he did.

The four boys had it tougher getting ready this morning because they had to share one bathroom while the girls got to use my bathroom and the third-floor guest bathroom. No, that isn't fair, but we're girls; and they might as well just get used to the real world while they're still young. There was just one little blip in an otherwise really good morning, and that came when Lance opted to go home instead of to church with Jenny. She wasn't happy about that; but faked being okay with it until about a minute after he left for home in his car – without even giving her a ride to church on the way out of town. Yes, he might have just assumed that she wanted to walk there with the rest of us; but not offering didn't go over well with Jenny – and I'm sure she'd wanted to spend more time with him; since they won't be able to get together until after Halloween.

Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had fun at church, but then it was back to the real world for Michael and he headed for the Inn straight from church; and Rowen and Tim only came home with me to pick up their overnight bags before moving on to their own plans for the rest of the day. Mom and Dad had custody of Ethan and Ehlana again, so we had lunch for five; and then I went biking with the twins for the afternoon while Mom and Dad did some work in the office – along with whatever else they kept themselves entertained with while we were out that had them smiling too much by the time we got home again. Our bike ride included play time at the park and an Emporium snack run. Michael played with us too while on his afternoon break, and then we returned Ethan and Ehlana to Mom and Dad when it was time to go to the Inn to help out with the buffet rush; and I went along to join the kitchen crew.

This time, we didn't stay late, but that was four hours or so of busy and fun. Michael was set free when I was ready to leave, and he came home with me to do a little homework that we didn't get done earlier in the weekend due to everything else we had on the go. With a little Magi power to help out with that, it took about ten minutes; and then we cuddled on the sofa in the lounge and watched the new 'Good Witch' movie. There was some minor make-out time mixed in with that, but not until after Ethan and Ehlana went to bed for the night; and it wasn't long after that before Michael needed to go home too.

The rest of my night was fairly standard for a school night. Mom did my Magi lesson with me after Michael left; and I've been studying and working on my computer since then – first while in the Jacuzzi; and then in bed while cuddling with Mandy. I'm going to skip the college family and friends report this week because there just isn't much news from their updates this weekend – though that could be because I get the redacted version of those reports. They are all doing well, though; and the Halloween fun around their respective campuses is not getting in the way of keeping up with the work. I'm sure that sounds more boring than it is for them; but I don't really need to know the details of some of their fun any more than I want to know why my parents were smiling the way they were before going to bed – pretty much the same way they'd been smiling this afternoon when Michael and I dropped the twins off on our way to the Inn.

Let's not go there; and all of the usual rules I've mentioned before about telling me about it in my future if you do use your imagination for that still apply!

Finally, let's do a quick look at the week ahead. Our last regular season football game is on Thursday, and between that and Halloween on Friday; those are the two big events – but there is more going on. The baby news for Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne will hit the grapevine on Tuesday because she's going to have the pregnancy test at the clinic tomorrow. For Ethan and Ehlana, Aiden's third birthday on Wednesday is a big deal, and while Michael and I won't be at the party; one of his football team mates, Paul, is having his fifteenth birthday on Saturday. That'll be his first since starting to date Vanessa, but I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with why we weren't invited – he's just having a small party; and inviting everyone on the team plus girlfriends just isn't an option. Rebecca and Lucas will be at the party, since they're classmates of Paul's; but I don't think that Jenny and Lance are going too. We'll have the usual weekend yard work and chores, and Mom and I are going to go through our closets and dressers to weed out our wardrobes while getting donations ready for the new second-hand charity store since they'll be ready to start receiving donations next week; but I think that's it for the schedule – not including cheerleading, band, and praise team practices; or any of the other regular daily activities – like my 'real' studies and family business work.

If I wasn't already tired from the studying and work, thinking about all of that would have me feeling exhausted. Since it is after three, though, I really need to wrap this up and head off into nap mode for a few hours. Monday might actually be the quietest day of the week for me, but around here; you can never be sure of that. I'll let you know how that works out with the next update, but for now; until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, October 27, 2014

We've had yet another beautiful, warm day; though a bit cloudier and not so much sunshine. According to the forecast, we'll be returning to fall-like weather by tomorrow, though it'll still be sunny – just not with temperatures in the eighties. It's also supposed to be quite a bit cooler by Halloween; so we're keeping an eye on that while making our plans for Halloween night here at my house.

My Monday has been really great, but not particularly newsworthy, and I've had another really late night; so I'll keep this short.

Tai Chi by the river was awesome, and it was even warmer than we expected for first thing in the morning. I sped up the getting ready part of my day and then met up with Michael at his house for breakfast before going on to school with Rebecca and Rowen. Halloween rules at school today; though football was a close second with the big game coming up on Thursday against Pinehurst. Yes, we'd have a spot in the playoffs now win or lose, but a win would give us home field advantage for at least the first round; so the guys really want the win. The Pinehurst players want the win just as badly, though; so we'll see what happens on Thursday!

Cheerleading practice was after school, and Rowen and I had time to do a bit of homework after that while sitting on the bleachers and waiting for the guys to finish their football practice. With only three days to get ready for the game, they worked harder and longer tonight; so it was after six by the time I went home with Michael and Rowen took Tim home with her – though they stopped in at the computer store on the way there to help with closing the store.

We were late for dinner, but Jacob just kept the food warm and slowed down the process a bit after getting the news from Rebecca that we'd likely be running behind. That put us behind on everything after that – including the clean-up; doing our homework; and the music practice that Michael and I did after that. Unfortunately for us, that meant not having much time for making out; but we still had fun with everything else before I needed to get home and started on the rest of my studies and work.

That included a long elements lesson with Mom; tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night; and three and a half hours of language studies, archive research, and family business work. If I hurry, I might make it to sleep by three, and that is pretty much all of the news for today; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The only news story around town today was Aunt Leanne's pregnancy announcement. Congratulations again, Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam!

Surprising the father-to-be isn't exactly an option when he's the doctor, but then Mom was able to surprise him with the 'unofficial' news; and it would just be weird in Uncle Mark was Aunt Leanne's doctor instead.

Yes, it isn't much different for Mom in that context; except that Dad isn't a doctor too – and it isn't as though we need to visit the clinic for more than the check-ups that we do for appearances.

For me, the direct involvement for the pregnancy celebration only included having dinner with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack at our house; and we did a call with Grandma and Grandpa during the meal that was fairly entertaining. Grandpa is getting a lot of mileage out of the jokes he's using when it comes to big events happening while he and Grandma are away; but I'm sure that they also prefer this kind of big news instead of the Dark Magi fights kinds of stories.

Compared to the 'Happy Belated Birthday – you're pregnant' news; my day has been fairly normal. We had some fun in our classes; I was busy the rest of the time with cheerleading practice at noon; band practice after school; and the teen praise team practice after dinner. Michael was with me for that celebration dinner at home, but he also had another extended practice; and only got there in time to sit down and eat. That was tough on him, but they'll have their usual light practice tomorrow; and helping him out with a little Magi-powered healing was an option after we got back from our praise team practice.

We also did a Magi lesson with Mom; took care of the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana; and had an hour of alone time in the lounge before he needed to get home and I climbed into bed with Mandy and started in on my nightly studies and family business work. Yet again, that was more than three hours ago; and I'm pretty much worn out now. The timing for my after-school work day is going to be good this week; and I plan on an even earlier-than-usual Wednesday night bedtime if I can swing that before getting into football and Halloween mode for Thursday and Friday. Since extra sleep isn't an option tonight, though, I'd better get started on what little nap time I will be able to have right now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aiden!

Other than sending a gift for him with Ethan and Ehlana, I didn't have any involvement in Aiden's special day; but my brother and sister went to his party, and Ethan is staying for a sleepover while Naomi came home to spend the night with Ehlana.

I spent a little time with them after they got home while we were all getting ready for bed; but the rest of my late afternoon and evening was all about my studies and working on the family business. I'm sure that Ehlana and Ethan will both have Aiden's party covered in their journals, so I won't pass on second-hand news for that here; but I'm glad that they all had fun while I was busy working.

The weather was back to fall-normal today, and we stayed indoors for Tai Chi this morning instead of bundling up to go outside. It's a safe bet that our exercise-by-the-river opportunities are going to be more limited from now until we're indoors for the winter; and I'm going to miss being able to do that – though I was okay with staying warmer this morning. We had a fairly standard school day, and while the boys still went outside to toss a football around at lunchtime; Rowen and I stayed indoors – as did most of the girls in our usual group. Cheerleading practice was outdoors, and while it was warmer by then; Dani mostly had us practice out there to get ready for the colder night we're likely going to have at the game tomorrow night – not to mention that we could get cold with a dash or three of rain.

The guys might actually be wishing for that, since they have a better record with rainy games than they have for nice weather matches; but I definitely prefer warm and dry for our cheerleading. Being indoors and working in the office was good too; but I'm mostly looking forward to getting a full night of nap time before getting into the next few days of busy. I'll probably be sleeping before Ehlana and Naomi get around to the unconscious time part of their sleepover; but they're also likely chatting with Ethan and Aiden on Ehlana's iPad too.

That's great for them, but instead of dragging this update out, I'm just going to wrap this up, put my computer away, and get started on my good night of sleep plan; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

This weekly football update is being brought to you a day early thanks to the makers of calendars and Halloween lovers everywhere! ;^)

We won our big game against Pinehurst; that gave us the division win with a five-and-oh record; and our team ends the regular season with an eight-and-two season that will give them home field advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs. That news has a lot of people in town fired up tonight – especially since there weren't many people expecting much of our team this season.

I'm going to mention here that there aren't many people expecting our guys to advance very far into the playoffs either, and while I wouldn't dismiss their chances so easily; and I'm not just saying that because my boyfriend is on the team. Sure, their defense wasn't good again tonight, and that usually wins championships; but most of our opponent defenses so far this season haven't exactly been stellar either so we'll see what happens when we go up against the top teams in the other divisions.

As for this game, we had better-than-expected weather this evening; and a big turnout that had the bleachers filled to capacity and then some. While the final score was close at fifty-five to fifty-one, Tim and Caleb helped our team get out to an early lead with a pair of touchdowns on our first two drives while we managed to only give up two field goals on the first two Pinehurst drives. No, that isn't much of a lead in a football game; but Pinehurst was playing catch-up all night; and that wears a team down after a while. While the order wasn't exact, we essentially traded touchdowns and field goals for the rest of the game, and while Pinehurst still had a chance for the late comeback; Michael ended those hopes with a late interception on one of the hail-Mary passes the Pinehurst quarterback had been tossing a lot in the fourth quarter as he tried to keep up with Jeff, Michael, and Tim. Michael had two touchdowns for the night; Tim had three; and Caleb and Lucas each had a running touchdown for our side.

Michael, Tim, and all of the other guys really loved having most of their families at the game tonight, and since pretty much everyone was at the game and it was on a Thursday, game night at the Inn was cancelled; and Jacob and Miranda were able to catch the last half of the game instead of being stuck working. That could have had something to do with why Michael played even better in the second half; though he'd had a pretty good first half too – if not as flashy as Tim's play was all night. Quite a few members of my family were there too; but Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah skipped the game in favor of some bonus nap time – mostly because they didn't want to sit on the bleachers that long or be a long walk away from the nearest bathroom.

It's a bit funny that I'm in football and cheerleading mode tonight and they're both counting down the weeks and days to their due dates. I'm not suggesting that my priorities are messed up – just that there is a big difference between teen and expecting parent daily life.

On the cheerleading news from tonight, our Halloween-themed half-time routine was a big hit, and while we geared it to be kid-friendly and a little scary too; we mostly just aimed to direct a little bit of Halloween humor at our opponents while entertaining our hometown crowd. I loved having Michael's parents there in time to catch that part of the game night fun too; though it's too bad that the guys never get to watch those half-time shows. While that was the highlight of the cheerleading side of the night; we had fun during the rest of the match too; and had lots to both cheer and boo about – again with a Halloween-theme for the 'booing'.

While this is a school night, we didn't have any homework assigned ahead of Halloween today; so there was a small post-game celebration party at the Palmer's house that all of the players and cheerleaders attended – though we only had about an hour to do that by the time we'd hit the showers and done the rest of the usual clean-up after the game. I would have liked to have a little alone time with Michael tonight too, but that didn't happen; and we did our goodnight hugs and kisses on his front porch before I moved on to my house to go to bed and get started on my usual bedtime computing.

I didn't do a full study and work session tonight, and Mom skipped the Magi lesson too; so I'll be sleeping in comparatively decent time despite not getting started on my work until after midnight. There isn't anything newsworthy to report from the studies or work that I did do, so I guess the only other info to add for today is from the pre-school action this morning. We were out at the river for Tai Chi, and while it was fun doing that with Naomi added to the group; we missed having Ethan there with us – especially since the twins are usually either both here or both away when they do their sleepovers with friends. Ethan and Aiden got dropped off before I went to school, and Aiden and Naomi were having a play morning with my brother and sister that included final work on their costumes; so I got a chance to hear the quick birthday and sleepover report from the boys before heading for school with Michael, Rowen, and Rebecca.

Having Aiden join the club of three-year olds with his best friends isn't really a big deal, but what is great to see is that they're able to do more and more activities together in public now that they're heading into that three-to-five age range. While I'm not inviting an early start to winter, I think that Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends are going to be a lot of fun to play with this winter. Hopefully that won't be one more thing that I only wish that I had more time to do with them; but let's not go there tonight. It's been a really great day; and I'm just going to head to bed in a few minutes and be happy about that.

Getting some extra sleep ahead of our big Halloween adventures is a bonus too, so I'm out of here; and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

We've had so much happening today, I'd better just start at the beginning and work my way through it all.

It was way too close to freezing this morning for outdoor Tai Chi comfort; so we were indoors for that; and then it was crazy-busy time from then until I headed for school. In addition to the usual daily routine, I had to get my costume and a few other things packed up; and I helped Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for their KidZone Halloween party – which they did this morning so that afternoon nap time was an option for the younger kids before going trick-or-treating tonight. That included turning Ethan into a dragon and Ehlana into a witch, and while that was fun and entertaining; I was rushed getting to school on time.

The biggest change for Halloween at school this year is that we got to be part of the set-up crew for the Haunted House in the gym for the first time. The no-classes thing was the selling point for that with most of my friends and classmates; but I was just in it for the fun – especially when I got to do that work with Michael, Rowen, and Tim. It's amazing how quickly a maze of curtains can be set up, and while that was probably the single biggest job; decorating and getting the props in place was more fun. The 'scare stations' in the maze were where the live action parts of the Haunted House were located; and the senior teens make sure that it's different every year. It took all morning to get everything ready; and then it was time to have lunch and get dressed up for the party – which for us meant helping to run the Haunted House all afternoon.

Michael and Tim got to be roving Zombies in the Haunted House; but Rowen and I ended up being put on guide duty for the younger kids at the start of the afternoon thanks in part to our comparatively mild choice of costumes. Being a pair of Monster High Ghouls – girls – was a hit with those kids, and we had fun leading small groups of them through the Haunted House; but the scare level was toned down quite a bit for all of the Kindergarten to Grade Three students. Since they were taken through the gym first, once we'd finished doing that; Rowen and I were given other random jobs for the rest of the afternoon. We did get to do a couple of break-relief stints at a few of the scare stations, so that was great; but mostly we worked in the background to keep everything moving smoothly.

Working the Haunted House meant no class party or much time to even take a snack break; and then we had to transition straight from scare-mode to clean-up duty. That was a tougher job for those of us who stayed to do that because most of the 'farm kids' headed home on the buses; and there weren't that many teens willing to hang around for an hour or so after school to do those jobs. After two months of weekly Friday night football action, that actually felt strange to not be doing that; but the crazy-busy just kept on coming after that.

While it wasn't very warm out today, Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I decided to go ahead with our Halloween Haunt at my house, so by the time we finished up at the school; we didn't have much time to get ready for that. While we had a few tricks planned for that, there wasn't anything too tough to do to get ready; but we still were on the go straight through until Mom and Dad left to take Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden trick-or-treating. We managed to have dinner by then too; though that was mostly grabbing slices of pizza and continuing to work while Mom and Dad had dinner in the kitchen with the four younger kids.

We wouldn't have won any National scare prizes for our Halloween Haunt, but we had a lot of fun tonight; and so did all of the kids. Zombie Michael and Tim were a hit – especially when they either sat in chairs with the two scarecrows we'd made up or lay on the ground in our 'cemetery' and then jumped up to scare the trick-or-treaters. Using a few Bluetooth speakers also allowed us to make those scarecrows 'talk' when we wanted to do that; which worked out best when we did that first; and then had Michael or Tim jump out of their chairs after the kids and parents thought that they were only talking to dummies. Rowen and I were handing out the candy, but we also took turns being the voices of the scarecrows and keeping the other tech support going – like the scary music and a couple of lower-tech gags – like a spider that dropped down from the porch roof to hang around with our guests for a while.

That few hours of play time was a blast, and though I missed taking Ethan and Ehlana out trick-or-treating this year; Mom and Dad loved getting to do that with them. One thing that the cold night did do was have pretty much all of the kids and teens wrapping up their Halloween adventures early. We still had the same number of kids as every year because our street is a must-do for every trick-or-treater. It did mean that we were able to wrap up our Halloween Haunt shortly after Mom and Dad got back home again with their witches, knight, and dragon. They'd also picked up Sophia Bassett along the way, and she fit right in with our good little witches because she'd gone with the obvious, but still adorable, Princess Sofia the First costume choice. There were still more candy-hunting monsters stopping by after that, but Mom and Dad took care of them while Rowen and I juggled taking care of the five younger kids and transformed back from teen ghouls to girls again.

Michael and Tim went home then to get cleaned up and changed too; but they came back again and had overnight bags with them because the four of us were booked for babysitting duty so that Mom, Dad, and some of their friends could go out to the Halloween party at Sheldon's pub after the kids were finished with their fun for the night. Our group of junior overnight guests began arriving before Michael and Tim got back, starting with Zack and Leah; and ending with Patrick and Scott. We also had Jessica and Ryan Bassett; and Jessica got to have her best friends, Lindsay Faulkner and Geraldine Sheldon, with her for the night. Having thirteen kids and tweens is a Halloween-worthy scary number for four babysitters; but it really wasn't a big deal.

Zack and Leah were ready for bed by then, so getting them off to sleep wasn't a big deal. Jessica, Lindsay, and Geraldine helped Rowen and I with Ehlana, Naomi, and Sophia; and the boys were easily kept amused with video gaming in the lounge. Mom and Dad were able to leave for the pub by nine-thirty; and then it was play time until a little after midnight. All of the younger kids were either sleeping or ready to drop by then, so there was another rush of action while Michael and I took care of most of that work with some junior babysitting support from Jessica and Scott while Rowen and Tim continued to hang out with the other kids in the lounge and my room.

It was after one by the time we were able to get the older kids and tweens to head for bed too; though not all of them are sleeping even as I write this now. By the time we cleaned up after that, Mom and Dad were home and checking in with us on their way to bed. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were pretty much ready to go and get some sleep by then too; but wanted some cuddle and wind-down time first before going there.

Which brings us to scary story time – for Rowen and me.

I don't need to guess to know that it was Tim's idea to use Halloween night to tell us the story that he and Michael have been avoiding talking to us about since their college football weekend getaway. It worked for them, and Rowen and I had fun with it; but they didn't really have anything to worry about. As far as we're concerned; our boys earned bonus points for how they handled themselves – and for telling us about it.

On the other hand, we're not positive how we feel about the fact that a pair of college girls thought that our boyfriends were hot enough to proposition them despite the fact that they're only fourteen.

Two hot, probably inebriated college girls.

Offering Michael and Tim an 'education' that they'd never forget.

Since Rowen and I think that our guys are hot, we can't really fault other girls from agreeing with us about that; but it's also still very strange to us too. I'm trying to imagine myself in five or six years being on the girl side of that situation and just can't imagine finding boys our age as interesting in that way – any more than I'd be interested in boys four or five years younger than I am now. Then again, there's also no way that I'll ever be intoxicated to anywhere near the extent that Michael and Tim implied that these girls were.

That incident, by the way, happened at their hotel on Saturday night. They were hanging out there on their own while Tim's father and uncle were at a football team party with Kyle. The girls were from the college of the team Kyle had played against; and they met up with Michael and Tim at the hotel pool. I'm not going to take that mental picture any farther tonight; but I'm sure you've got enough information to have a good image of the scene they were dealing with.

By the way, Michael and Tim have not told anyone else about this, and are probably more afraid of telling their football buddies than Rowen and me. I can definitely see Jason Johnson and some of the other guys razzing them about being stupid for turning the girls down. Coincidentally, those comments would be coming from the same guys who are generally clueless to dealing with girls in general and girlfriends in particular. Rowen and I wouldn't dream of messing up their reps by saying anything either; but it is stupid that any guys would think that Michael and Tim would be nuts to turn down a one night stand that would definitely have messed things up with their girlfriends.

If there are any Magi men reading this in the future and thinking that exact same thing; get a clue, dude!

Scary college girl story time was the last entertainment part of the night, but I walked Michael to his room when we were ready to get some sleep so that Rowen and Tim could do their goodnight hugs and kisses in the lounge. We managed to keep ourselves entertained for twenty minutes in his room, and then I went upstairs again; making sure that I didn't walk in on anything I shouldn't in the lounge by going into my room – and on to the bathroom to get changed and ready for bed. Tim had gone down to his room by the time I was in my night dress and ready to climb into bed with Mandy; and Rowen took her turn in the bathroom after that.

I've done a bit of family business work that came up while doing my bedtime computing, but Rowen and I have mostly stayed up to have some girl chat time that mostly involved discussing the boys' scary story news. We've decided that locking them up and keeping them all to ourselves for the next ten or twenty years isn't an option; but we are seriously going to think about getting invited to future college football weekends and stay close to them if they're going to attract that kind of attention from other girls every time we let them out of our sight.

Let's move this along; since we really should be getting to sleep soon. While we weren't involved in the work at the Inn, it was a busy night there with lots of business from the parents of farm kids and teens going there for dinner while the kids were out trick-or-treating – or taking them to dinner first before doing that together. Rebecca had the night off too so that she could be at home to hand out candy, and while he isn't spending the night in town; Lucas spent the evening with Rebecca and then got a ride home with his parents after the party at the pub. Jenny was hanging out with Lance tonight; but I haven't even heard yet for sure what they ended up doing tonight – because Jenny didn't know what they were going to do as of the last time I talked to her at school.

There's other news from around town and stories that Mom and Dad told us from their party, but we are going to be very busy starting in just a few hours with a gang to feed and get ready to send back home to their families; so I'd better wrap this up and get started on that nap time.

I've had some really great Halloweens since moving here, so I'm not going to rate this a best-ever-so-far day; but it has been really great – even the scary college girl story part of the night. It's the first of November now, and though October ended with a blast of fun; we won't be able to say the same thing about the start of the new month. I have another yard clean-up day scheduled; Michael's going to be busy at the Inn all day; and I might help out there too if I get my work at home done early enough to go and help with the dinner rush.

Remind me again why I'm still awake right now?

That's what I thought, and you're right about that; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!
November 2014

Saturday, November 1, 2014

It felt more like winter than fall yesterday morning with the temperature dipping below freezing overnight, and while it warmed up a little by the afternoon; our start to November definitely felt like fall with a hint of winter on the way.

No, that use of the word 'yesterday' was not a mistake. It's Sunday morning; and I'm writing this while taking my turn getting ready for church while Dad, Michael, and Ethan are busy making breakfast. The reason for that is because I fell asleep on the sofa in the lounge last night after a very long, busy work day and didn't get any of my usual bedtime computing finished. The bad part of that is the fact that I also missed out on most of the alone time opportunity I had with Michael after we helped with getting Ethan and Ehlana off to bed for the night. The good news is that Michael fell asleep too; and was still cuddled with me on the sofa when we woke up this morning! ;^)

We are so going to get razzed about that today – especially since we've already been advised that pictures were taken to prove how cute we are when we fall asleep together like that, but my parents weren't able to wake us up and send Michael home anymore than his parents could when we had that sofa sleepover at his house; so I'm really okay with the teasing and jokes cost that will come along with getting to do all-night cuddle sessions with Michael. You could also say that my highlight of the day for yesterday and this morning was that getting to wake up snuggled with Michael. Since we did work pretty much the rest of the time yesterday, though; that's not really saying much about the fun level of our day.

Okay, there was some fun here and there too. Breakfast with a gang of kids and teens yesterday was awesome, and Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam came over to join us for that – and help with the cooking and clean-up before taking their little angel home with them. That was also a lot of work for Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me to help out with both the work in the kitchen and juggling getting all of the younger kids ready for the day before breakfast. Not all of our little guests were particularly excited about their wake-up calls – especially after getting upwards of several hours less sleep than normal. Then there were the fully-charged kids – like Zack and Leah. Keeping up with them was tougher than dealing with the cranky kids.

Those hours of whirlwind action, fun, and entertainment were followed by an all-day yard work session that included packing up the Halloween decorations for another year and putting them away. Michael, Rowen, and Tim had all moved on by then, so Dad and I did most of that work while Mom was busy with the twins and the indoor chores; and we kept busy right up until I was set free to hit the showers and get ready to go and help out at the Inn for the dinner rush. Before I get to that part of the report, I'll also mention that the yard work just wasn't much fun today – not even the decorations clean-up. Dad and I were frozen most of the morning, and even with the help of the new lawn tractor and the cool vacuum-bagger gizmo on it; working in the leaves and garden just sucked today. I am so glad that the fall clean-up work is nearly finished for another year!

The main reason I was helping out at the Inn last night was because Jacob and Miranda were a few teens short of the normal crew – including Rebecca. Most of them were at a birthday party; though a couple were off for other reasons.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

That's the first time his birthday has been mentioned in my journal, and while I didn't have anything to do with his big day at all, Michael and I did get a little gift for his teammate that we sent along with Rebecca when she and Lucas went to the party. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were not invited too, and there might be some speculation about whether that was because this is also Paul's first birthday with Vanessa as his girlfriend; but I'm sure it had more to do with Paul not being able to invite all of his family, friends, and everyone on the football team too. I do hope that he had a good day; and I'll pass on the news if there was anything worth reporting once we get the party report from Rebecca later this morning or afternoon.

With the light staff at the Inn, we were very busy there; though the dinner crowd was lighter than usual for a Saturday night – probably due to Halloween overload. I'm not going to suggest that the work at the Inn was the reason for why Michael and I both fell asleep within fifteen or twenty minutes of snuggling together on the sofa in the lounge last night, but for me; the combination of not much sleep Friday night with the crazy-busy morning; tough, cold yard work day; and the hours in the kitchen at the Inn definitely did run down my batteries to the exhaustion level.

The early crash and nap also means that I don't have any other news to report today, and I do need to finish getting ready for church in time to have breakfast; so, until next time – sometime tonight...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

As I'm sure that you can guess, my sofa sleepover with Michael was a big news story with our families and friends today. That didn't have anything to do with why I spent most of my time at home – I just had things to do there and didn't want to stay up late to get all of my work done either.

The wake-up time with Michael and Tai Chi with my parents, brother, and sister made for a great start to the day, and the fun continued through breakfast and the clean-up that Mom and I took care of while Michael went home to get ready for church and Dad took his turn hitting the shower too. Aunt Leanne beat Miranda to the first sleepover teasing and jokes opportunity – for me. Michael had been welcomed home with a round of hugs, kisses, and jokes; and then Miranda and Aunt Leanne were happy to gang up on us while we all walked to church together.

Our friends alternated between razzing us and being amazed that we got away with a co-ed sleepover, but with Halloween over; it was also time to start working on our plans for the Thanksgiving weekend services. Getting ready for Christmas will be coming up soon too; but that work will be more with the teen praise team for Michael and me than anything else. Starting the work for our teen service at Thanksgiving was a fun change from the usual in Sunday school, and maybe Pastor John thought that we needed to burn off some of the Halloween candy-fueled energy doing that because he led one of the longer services this fall so far; and didn't set his congregation free until eleven o'clock.

Michael left for the Inn right after that; and I eventually went home with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana. We've had a decent fall-weather day, and Michael and I took Ethan and Ehlana to the park for some play time while he was on his afternoon break; but I spent the rest of the day at home. The non-sleepover highlight of the day was actually working with Mom to go through our wardrobes – and Ehlana's – and weeding out everything we wanted to donate to the new second-hand charity store. It won't be opening up until the Monday before Thanksgiving, but the store remodel is finished; and they'll be ready to start taking donations tomorrow so that they can get everything ready for their grand opening. Mom went over to Aunt Leanne's house while she was kid-free this afternoon to do the same; and they'll drop our donations off sometime tomorrow.

After getting home from the park, I started working on the family business in the office through until dinnertime. While I was tempted to help out at the Inn again tonight, the need to get my own work done without staying up most of the night won out over spending those extra hours with Michael and Rebecca. He didn't come over after he was done at the Inn either, but I'm certainly not going to complain about one night off from hanging out together – especially when Rebecca and Lucas are more likely to only get one night together a week.

Instead of spending that time with Michael, I worked until dinner was ready; enjoyed an easy-meal with my family; watched a movie in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad worked in the office; and then I got back to my studies and work while multi-tasking that with some Jacuzzi time. Mom took custody of the twins while I was doing that and did bath time with them too. We got together for their bedtime story; and then we all went to bed.

Three out of five of us are either sleeping now or will be soon. I don't really want to go there for what else is going on in the house tonight, but while you're possibly using your imagination about that; I'm going to wrap this up and get some sleep.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, November 3, 2014

The top news story around town wasn't, but probably should have been, the second-hand charity store. It is going to get talked about much more often this week, though; and some of my favorite women are going to make sure that all of our friends and neighbors get involved in sending donations to the store so they'll have lots of stock for their grand opening in a few weeks.

At school, football playoff fever has struck; and that's made Michael, Tim, and the rest of the guys on the team celebrities with their fellow students. They didn't feel like rock stars by the time Coach Robinson was finished with them after practice, but, fortunately for Michael; he is the one guy on the team with a girlfriend who can help him out with the strains and pains that go along with intense practices.

There is one other event going on this week that is newsworthy at school; and that's the midterm elections. Okay, it's an educational must, but I can tell you that everyone in my class is just very glad that we only need to deal with it for a few days this week thanks to Halloween getting in the way of dragging it out for weeks. Unless things have really changed around here in the future when you're reading this; elections just aren't that big a deal here in Witch Falls. Our collective voice in state and federal politics is zero, and even if it wasn't; there aren't any choices in these elections that actually make a difference.

The bottom line here is that we just live our lives as best we can around here with as little attention or involvement of government at any level beyond our own community. Since we're a net-positive on the cash flow to those state and federal governments; they're usually okay with leaving us alone.

Too bad they don't do that for everyone! ;^)

I'm not going to drag out a long diatribe on politics – tonight. Resisting that when it's time for the election post-mortem is another matter, though; and I might not be able to keep myself from commenting on that. You'll know the answer to that sooner than I will if you keep reading at least another couple of days into my journal!

Moving along, we've had a nice fall day, and while football was all that most of the guys wanted to talk about and do today, Rowen and I also had our cheerleading practice after school; and Michael and I had dinner and spent the evening at his house. Lucas stayed for dinner and studying time with Rebecca too; so the four of us had fun hanging out together – and with Miranda and Jacob. Doing our homework with Rebecca and Lucas takes longer for Michael and me than it would if we were doing it at my house and on our own; but it's worth the extra time to get the extra time with them.

We also talked about possibly setting up another teen sleepover this weekend, but don't have anything firm yet. I'll keep you posted; and hope that we can do that – especially when those nights work out so well for Rebecca and Lucas. His father probably doesn't think so, since he loses the extra help on the farm while Lucas is busy; but I'm also sure that his mother intervenes when needed.

Okay, I'd better move this along. It's late, and I need to be up early to help out with a special birthday breakfast for Dad in just a few hours.

The dinner and study time at Michael's was the best part of the day for me; though our music practice after that was good too – even if we didn't have time at the end for much of a make-out session before I needed to get home. Ethan and Ehlana were still up then and working on their college studies, so Mom did my Magi lesson with me while they were busy; and then I helped to get them tucked in for the night by eleven-thirty. That's why it was after midnight by the time I was changed and in bed with Mandy and my computer; and ready to get started on my studies and family business work.

Mom and Dad are not staying up late and working too; but they're also not sleeping either. As always, the imagination rule applies; so have fun with that if you absolutely must while I don't – though I am glad that they're both having a happy start to Dad's birthday.

I wouldn't say that three and a half hours or so of language studies, archive homework, and family business action has made me especially happy too; but I did get a lot accomplished. That'll make up for what I expect will be a shorter work window tomorrow night; though we'll see how that goes. Birthdays on work and school nights aren't usually all that wild and crazy around here; so it is possible that I'll have a mostly-normal night after the dinner party. I am still going to have cheerleading, band, and praise team practices tomorrow too, though, and really should have been sleeping an hour or two ago to be ready for all of that; so that's it for tonight, and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Happy 36th Birthday, Dad!

We've had a fairly nice day, but not all that warm out. That didn't keep us from starting Dad's big day out with Tai Chi by the river; and Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack joined us for that – though Zack just sat in his stroller and stayed bundled up and warm while the rest of us exercised. They also stayed for breakfast, and so did Michael; though that had good and bad moments.

The bad would be the morning sickness that hit Aunt Leanne while breakfast was being cooked, and while that wasn't fun for her at all; she still led the jokes about Dad now having two recent birthdays where pregnant women with morning sickness was an issue.

For the record, no, I do not plan on helping Aunt Leanne out with near-future additions to those jokes about Dad's birthdays being a cause of morning sickness with pregnant women; but I won't promise that'll never happen either. That had Dad worried, but the only reason for not making that promise is because I really like the timing for both Mom's and Aunt Leanne's second pregnancies – though I'll shoot for due dates a bit earlier than late June and early-July when I am ready to start my own family.

That got off track a bit, so let's move along.

Dad's birthday breakfast wasn't much fun for Aunt Leanne, but we worked around that and had her lay down on a sofa in the living room while the cooking continued; and then moved the breakfast party into the dining room to keep the smells to a minimum for her. Michael and I didn't have a lot of time to enjoy the meal or birthday fun before we needed to get ready for school; but Dad and Uncle Adam didn't have a lot of time for that either before needing to get ready for work. Since Aunt Leanne was feeling barfy; she stayed and took it easy until she felt better; and let Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana take care of Zack for a while.

My school day was a mix of work and fun, with cheerleading and band practice being the most fun and the election coverage the least interesting part of my day. I'll get to that part of the update in a bit; though I don't actually consider the election results particularly newsworthy either for me personally or in the grand scheme of things. Our cheerleading practice was again all about getting ready for our first playoff game. Dani is looking ahead beyond this week too; but only with a bit of planning. With sudden-death playoffs, there's no point in getting too far ahead of ourselves. With Halloween over now, band practice was all about Christmas music to get ready for the start of the parade and concert season that is amazingly now less than five weeks away.

I didn't think about that back when Rowen wanted to know if I'd try out for cheerleading but if our team makes it to the championship game; we'll end up jumping straight from football into parades and concerts without even one weekend off! Add in the teen praise team practices to get ready for the Christmas show at the church and helping out with the Christmas concert at school; and Michael and I are going to seriously need the vacation time at Christmas.

Don't get me wrong – I love the parades and concerts; and wish we did more of that during the rest of the year with the band. Maybe we'll see what we can do about that next year – though I have no idea how to add more to my schedule than I already have going on. It still would be really nice to do more than just practice for half of the school year without any performances at all.

Again, moving along, Mom had a gang of family and friends over for Dad's birthday dinner party. Aunt Leanne had another barfy moment or two, but mostly held it together – at least while I was there. Michael, Tim, Lucas, Rebecca, and Rowen came home with me for the dinner after our football and band practices too; and three out of four sets of parents were either already there or on the way by then. Michael and I had to get to our teen praise team practice for seven o'clock, so we didn't have time for much more than eating our meal and then heading out the door again; but everyone else was able to relax and enjoy spending some quality time roasting Dad and enjoying the meal that included a pair of Jacob Stone special side-dishes. We stayed for the birthday song and candles; but missed the dessert and gift opening part of the fun.

It was a work and school night, though, so the party didn't last long anyway – and was over by the time we got back from spending an hour and a half working on new music for both our Thanksgiving and Christmas services. Stacey is going all out for Christmas this year, and she's going to have Michael and me very involved in the music; so we're going to have extra work there too. At this rate, I'm going to need to start doing daily time-phases to make more than twenty-four hours in all of my days just to keep up!

Before I move along, though, there was one news item that I should have mentioned from dinnertime. With quite a few of the parents there, we – the teens – got approval for our Saturday sleepover plans; and Michael and Rebecca will be hosting the event this time. Tim still needed to get parental approval, and Jenny and Lance will get their invitations by tomorrow at the latest; but I'd say it's a done deal at this point.

Michael came home with me for a while after our praise team practice, and while he didn't stay late; we did do a Magi lesson with Mom, took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked into their beds, and had a little alone time in the lounge before he went home for the night and I got to work on my usual bedtime studies and family business work. We did our homework while in the lounge too, but that was easy enough with the help of a time-phase to get it out of the way and not interfere with our minor make-out session.

Yes, a major make-out session in a time-phase was an option; but we resisted the urge. ;^)

That was a good decision because I've ended up working for nearly four hours now – including some Jacuzzi time multi-tasking with the first round of language studies. The only comment I'll make about the work part of my night is that it's been strange working on family business projects for next year going out into the spring and even next summer on a day when two of my group practices were just starting preparations for Christmas events. Christmas is one of my very favorite times of the year, but with the inevitable weather descent into winter that we're dealing with now; I had more fun playing in virtual tropical or summer paradises tonight.

Maybe Mom and Dad will consider a winter getaway somewhere south and warm sometime sooner than later. I wouldn't want to be away from home for Christmas; but skipping school for a week in January or February to do that – or a March Break adventure – would definitely work for me.

I'm getting all warm and toasty just thinking about the possibilities – though I'd better not spend too much time thinking about travel options with Michael too much; or I'll need to go and take a cold shower to get some sleep.

That brings us back around to the election news. The politically cynical side of me would report that everyone in the country – and the rest of the world, for that matter – lost the election tonight. Then again, that isn't quite true – the rich and powerful manage to win every election one way or the other. In this country, and really most others; there is no true, difference-making choices for governments anyway. I really don't want to get into a rant about that no matter how tempting. For our little town, it really doesn't matter whether Republicans or Democrats have control of the Senate or House of Representatives. We'll take care of our own here, and if the governments of the world will stay out of our way; we'll even try to do that for the rest of the world – though that's not going to happen nearly as fast as I wish that it could.

It would be nice if the Ascension of the Light includes a future when the current political mess we call governments are irrelevant.

A girl can dream. ;^)

The best news about the election tonight, though, is that we'll have one post-mortem day of analysis at school; and then we can ignore politics again for another couple of years while we don't pay attention to the twenty-sixteen election cycle that the politicians and media will start harping on by Thursday. They all seem to love the games and theatre; but most of us have lives to live; and can't be bothered with any of that idiocy.

I will not rant; I will not rant...

I should mention that all of the adults in my family did go out and vote like good little citizens, but don't get too excited about that; because protest-voting is very popular in Witch Falls – meaning that neither of the two major political parties ever win even a third of the votes – and usually less than a quarter between both sides. Now that I think about that, though; I guess there is one Magi-related election news flash that would be nice to know – what the Magi vote break-down is for these elections. No, it doesn't make a difference for any of the vote results; but it could be a cute little fun fact. That same question wouldn't be a big deal for Dark Magi; since I'm sure they just vote for whomever they own – assuming they don't own all candidates anyway.

That's more than enough election coverage from my perspective, and if you're actually interested in the details from a history point of view whenever you're reading this; feel free to Google it – or do whatever it is you'll do to get information in my future. All I want to do right now is call it a night and get some sleep; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

I started the day out with Tai Chi and breakfast; went to school; had a not-very-exciting day there; followed that up with cheerleading practice; and then worked for the rest of the day on my studies and family business until about five minutes ago.

That's all I have because I'm exhausted and ready to crash for a solid eight hours or more; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Congratulations to the Stone and Bishop families – it's a girl!

That news flash was a minor hit on the town gossip network today, and while everyone is happy for Jacob, Miranda, and everyone in the Stone family; this wasn't a huge story because most people don't even know Michael's cousins – even if they do know his aunt and grandparents very well.

Annette Bishop is Drew and Heidi Bishop's first baby; is the first girl great-grandbaby for Jacob's parents; and leaves Drew's younger brother, Eric with bragging rights for being first to have a baby with his wife, Sally; and still the only 'male heir' to the Bishop clan so far. We have heard that Gerry, the one-and-a-half-year-old heir-apparent is quite amazed by his new baby cousin; and thinks that his parents should either take her home with them – or get one of their own.

Michael and I are happy for his cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents too; but we won't be involved in Annette's life anytime soon; and probably won't even get to meet her until Christmas – unless the Bishop clan decides to make the trip here for Thanksgiving instead and then not come here for Christmas at all. Jacob and Miranda are probably going to be heading there on their days off next week; so we'll probably know one way or the other by the time they come back.

Oh, and if you're wondering; yes, I have offered to keep Michael – and Rebecca – at my house while they're away. That's what friends are for – to make these little sacrifices! ;^)

Compared to that news, my day was fairly uneventful. It was cooler again today, and though we still went outside for Tai Chi; we needed to bundle up a bit extra to do that. With our first playoff game of the season now just a day away; I'm sure you can guess that football was the number one topic at school all day. There actually wasn't much football action going on, though; and that's all because Coach Robinson has the guys mostly resting up for the game today except for a light work-out. Lunchtime scrimmages were out too because he doesn't want any freak play-time injuries taking out any of his players ahead of the big game.

Rowen and I had cheerleading practice outdoors at noon, so that wasn't a big deal for us – especially when the cooler weather was a bigger deal for us. I'm not looking forward to another chilly football game; but that's probably what we'll be getting tomorrow night.

With election fever over with now, it was a quiet day in the classroom, and after we were set free for the day; I went on to the Inn with Rebecca while Michael was busy with his light workout and practice with the team so that we could do our homework together and then help out with the dinner rush and game night action. The family baby news made all of that more fun for Jacob and Miranda, and while we had a comparatively light crowd both for dinner and the gaming; we had a lot of fun too.

Since I had been there for the early work, I didn't stay for the post-gaming clean-up; and instead went home with my family shortly after the championships were awarded. Michael was sent home with us with orders to get to bed and sleeping ahead of his big game, and while I was tempted to go and tuck him in for the night after we got teased about that on the way out of the Inn; I resisted the urge and we settled for good night kisses and hugs on his front porch instead.

Note to Miranda for future reading and reference: If you want your son to go off to sleep right away; don't invite his girlfriend to tuck him in before doing that. He wouldn't have gone to sleep anytime soon if I had; and he was probably awake for a while thinking about what might have been because we didn't.

Moving along, I still had my Magi lesson to do with Mom after we got home; Ethan and Ehlana did some college studying while I was doing that; and then I took care of getting them tucked in for the night while Mom and Dad both did some work in the office. It's been all study and family business work time for me since then; which is why it's after three now and I should have been sleeping already to rest up for that game too.

The good news is that I can use a little self-healing to make up for the lost down time, but I really should wrap this up anyway and get what rest I can; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, November 7, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Marcie!

We did a little lunchtime party for Marcie at school today, but she's already away on a birthday weekend adventure with her family this weekend instead of doing a party. Her boyfriend, Marc, isn't on that trip with her, and there was a hint or two of tension going on between Marcie and Marc, but it didn't sound to me as if Marcie had a choice in the matter; so I hope that Marc will cut her some slack. Marcie had a good day at school, and her weekend plans with her family sounded fun; so I hope she's enjoyed the rest of her big day and trip.

Football fever ruled here in Witch Falls today, and while Marcie and her family weren't the only members of our community not at the game tonight; they were in the minority. We'd drawn Westburg for our first-round opponent, and while their team and fans didn't have a good night; we definitely did! The fifty-to-thirty-three final score doesn't sound too bad for Westburg, but we pretty much had one of our best defensive games of the season; and the score was only that close because Coach Robinson had our guys kick field goals for our final five scoring drives of the night after earning five touchdowns by early in the third quarter.

Jason Johnson's twenty point night had him spending too much time bragging yet again, and while I wouldn't dream of wishing him bad luck with his kicking game; it would be nice if he'd stop acting like he was the next Kyle Landry-type star of the team. Tim didn't say anything to him at the after-game party tonight; but he was especially irritated after doing as ordered by the coach and holding back instead of running up the score when he and Michael could have both easily done that.

Westburg did score two late touchdowns to get to that thirty-three points, but by then; it just didn't matter. Tim had two of our five touchdowns, and Michael, Caleb, and Lucas split the other three between them; but Michael's biggest contributions tonight were on the defensive side of the ball. He had two interceptions that our team turned into ten points – along with eating time off of the clock along the way. Those weren't our only good defensive plays, but they were two of the highlights; and that side of our game definitely looked better tonight.

The bottom line, though, is that we're through to the next round of the playoffs. Coach Robinson will find out sometime tomorrow who our next opponent will be – and whether we'll be at home again or away. That'll come down to what our record is like compared to the other playoff survivors; but we do have a shot at a second home game – particularly if any of the under-dog teams won tonight.

Before I move on from football, we had a fun night with the cheerleading; and we had the bonus of the temperature staying warmer than forecast through the end of the game too. I really love cheering for Michael, Tim, and the rest of our team; but it's most fun when I get to do that with my family in the crowd – and we had everyone there tonight except for Aunt Deborah and Aunt Grace. Aunt Leanne went home early once the game outcome wasn't really in any doubt; but that was mostly because she was worn out – not due to any concerns about barfing on the other spectators.

Just kidding, Aunt Leanne! ;^)

Our half-time routine was another hit, and I should mention that Dani is particularly happy about how those little shows are going for our squad. We don't exactly have competitions with the other squads, but we are still competitive both while working the sidelines and during the half-time break; and Dani feels as though we've won pretty much all of those match-ups this season with more creative and fun routines. Yes, Rowen and I help out with that, but it's a team effort; and everyone has come up with at least one of the routine ideas this year.

I still love our 'singing in the rain' routine the best; but Rowen and I are fairly biased about that.

The post-game celebration was at Jeff and Tammy Morris' house this week; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I all went to it once we were finished with the usual clean-up work at the school. That didn't exactly leave us with hours of play time, but compared to a road game; we had lots of time to have a little fun with our friends. Yes, football talk rules those little get-togethers; but Rowen and I – and the rest of the girls – managed to keep entertained too.

While I'm thinking about the guys and talking football, I'm going to go back to mentioning Jason Johnson again – but only in comparison to Jeff Morris. Jeff is as low-key about his game play as Michael, Caleb, and Lucas are. No, I'm not including Tim in that group, but that's only because he loves to be flashy – not because he brags about himself. Anyway, my point is that Jeff didn't say anything about his own play, as usual, and he's so quiet; I'm not sure that many people even thought about the fact that he was on the throwing end of three out of five of our touchdowns tonight – and had a really good completion percentage to go along with piling up more than three hundred passing yards. Yes, Michael and Tim usually pad those numbers with a lot of running; but Jeff really is doing a great job both as quarterback and team captain. Jason could learn a thing or two from Jeff; but I doubt that he will.

Some of the older teens could stay up late and party tonight, but more than half of us couldn't. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I headed for home at twelve-thirty – at the same time that Lucas was catching his ride home and Rebecca left the party too. I went home with Michael and Rebecca while Rowen took Tim home with her for a little bit of alone time before his one o'clock curfew. Michael and I had a little bit of cuddle time too; but Rebecca stayed with us too and we mostly talked about what we wanted to do for our Saturday night sleepover until it was time for me to head home too.

That was a fun end to the night, and though I have been working on my computer for over an hour since climbing into bed with Mandy; only about twenty minutes of that time was spent dealing with some family business work that I didn't want to leave until Sunday night or Monday. The rest of the time, I've just been winding down while checking my email and surfing the net.

We've got another yard work day on the schedule, so I should get some sleep now – especially when I'm sure that we'll be up late again tomorrow night. There really isn't much else to report from home or school today anyway. It was too cold outside this morning, so Tai Chi was indoors, and it was fun having Michael stay with us for breakfast; but there wasn't anything to write about from our classes today – other than Marcie's birthday fun and entertainment. We did get a bit of extra homework dumped on us that we'll need to get done sometime this weekend, and there are some tests booked for next week too; but none of that is really a big deal for me anyway.

Okay, there's no point in dragging this out, and I am ready for some nap time anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Kyle's team won their football game this week too!

There, I've added a college football update, Tim; so can we move on now? I know that it's tough for guys not to talk football when they get together – especially a day after a big playoff win, and on college football day; but you and Michael and Lucas were spending the evening with your girlfriends tonight too. Football was not a priority for us.

Yes, I'm sure that you didn't find our girl chat topics interesting either; but we needed something to do while three out of four of our guys were busy talking sports and gaming – or talking sports while we watched that action flick.

Before I get to the teen night and sleepover report, though; let's cover the rest of the news from earlier today.

Tai Chi was outdoors, but very chilly this morning; breakfast was indoors and hot; and the yard work had Dad and me outdoors again for a lot of the day as the fall clean-up seems to be never-ending this year. I did have a one-hour reprieve for that right after breakfast so that I could run over to Michael's house and give him and Rebecca a hand with getting the guest bedrooms ready for our sleepover there – and do a bit of main-floor cleaning too so that everything was ready for our evening of teen gaming and movies.

Dad and I juggled taking care of the twins for a while this morning too while Mom went to give Aunt Leanne a hand with Zack and some errands while she was having some morning sickness issues; and we did some indoor chores while we were also inside for lunch anyway. That was fun because Ethan, Ehlana, and I multi-tasked that with some Magi-powered play time to speed up some of those chores. Mom was home again for our soup and sandwiches lunch break; and then Dad and I were back outside again for another couple of hours of mostly-messy work.

Michael was with me for part of that time during his afternoon break, and I was set free a half hour before he needed to get back to the Inn. That didn't give us much time to hang out together, but I packed my overnight bag and sent it with him when he left so that he could drop it off at home on his way back to the Inn. Our teen night wasn't starting until after he and Rebecca were finished with the dinner rush there, so I decided to grab a shower, get ready for my night, and head over to the Inn to help out too.

Since Michael and Rebecca were busy, Lucas and I couldn't make dinner plans with them, but Jenny, Lance, Rowen, and Tim were all having a date-dinner at the Inn while the rest of us were working. For Lucas, that was staying to help on the farm ahead of getting to have Sunday morning off from his usual chores, and though it would have been fun to go out to dinner with Rowen and Tim; Michael and I still had fun in the kitchen while we first helped out with the prep line work and then moved on to the less-entertaining dishwashing that sometimes seemed never-ending even on a comparatively quiet Saturday night dinner rush.

While I was doing that, Mom and Dad were getting started on a kid-free night. They had to wait for the bakery and salon to close for the day before giving up custody of Ethan and Ehlana to the Drapers and Seagers respectively; but their friends had conspired to get them the night off after finding out that I'd be spending the night with Michael and his family. I'm sure they're having fun, and they were going to Sheldon's for a little play time with kids their own age; but I don't think we need to add any details about what they're probably doing with the rest of their kid-free night.

On the teen front, Michael, Rebecca, and I were set free from the kitchen at nearly the same time that Jenny, Lance, Rowen, and Tim were finished the dinner part of their date night; and we were all able to go over to Michael and Rebecca's house. Jenny got a ride there with Lance because it apparently hadn't occurred to either of them to park it there instead after he'd picked Jenny up; but they somehow still managed to get there after the rest of us did – and we walked home.

While I'm thinking about that scene, I've got to mention that it seemed very strange to me to see Jenny grab her overnight bag out of Lance's car when we were all ready to go inside; and that was probably even stranger for Jenny's Mom – kind of a reverse of what it was like for me when Mom was dating Dad and doing sleepovers at his house.

Funny that I should be thinking that when the only difference between tonight and those sleepovers back then for Mom and Dad is that they needed to get someone to watch three kids – instead of just one of them! ;^)

Moving along, Claire dropped Lucas off before Rebecca and Michael had even finished 'showing us to our rooms' so that four out of five of us could put our bags in our rooms. I only needed to move my bag from Michael's room to the one Rowen and I are sharing, and though Michael had done that as a joke; I'm not to only one wishing that I was in his room with him now and Tim was with Rowen. That didn't – and isn't – going to happen; though Jenny once again didn't have a problem with sneaking into Lance's room after we all went to bed. That might have been why he was put into the guest room farthest from Miranda and Jacob's room; but I didn't ask Rebecca about that and she didn't offer any comments about that at the time when we were putting our bags in those rooms.

I've already covered part of the evening news, and though the guys really did talk too much about football, and they regularly checked the scores from the college games still in progress; we also had fun hanging out together. Jenny, Rebecca, Rowen, and I talked about everything from cheerleading to upcoming holidays and shopping trips while the boys started out with a round of video gaming. The action flick was fairly bad; but there was a lot of fighting, car chases, and stuff getting blown up; so it wasn't a total waste of no-think time – and the cuddling with our boyfriends was good. We were on our own without parental supervision until Miranda and Jacob got home after closing the Inn, but then they quickly got ready to go out and went to Sheldon's for an hour or so to hang out there with Mom, Dad, and some of their other friends.

They didn't seem to mind trading that for watching that movie with us, but then they were good with hanging out with us after they got home while we all had a late-night pizza snack. Cooking up a few frozen pizzas isn't news when you've got a group of teens together in a small town, but there was one interesting conversation that I'm going to mention here – just for the record. Jenny started the little chat about the total lack of fast food options for kids and teens both in our town and for Lance and his friends in Maple Valley. Jenny probably isn't far behind Aunt Leanne when it comes to her enthusiasm for fast food, and while Rebecca loves her Dad's amazing cooking as much as Michael and I do; she likes all things fast food too. I was the one to suggest that they should just solve that problem by opening their own fast food place when they grow up; but Jenny thought that was a great idea and ran with it from there for a while with some help from Rebecca and Miranda.

The only thing I'll add here is that the seed has been planted; and yes, the twins and I might know something that we're not telling anyone about yet. By the time you read this in the future, you'll know what that is anyway; but I like keeping my journals in 'real-time'; so I'll mostly report events as they happen.

That snack break was fun, but then Miranda and Jacob went up to bed after we ate; Michael and I took care of the clean-up; and then we had a little more teen chat and video gaming time before we needed to come up to our rooms too. Lance probably thought that the only request Miranda had made of us – to wrap things up by one o'clock – was too early, but since he does have Jenny in his room with him now; I doubt that he still has a problem with the plan. We managed to each find a way for a little couples' alone time for goodnight hugs and kisses before most of us ended up in the rooms we're supposed to be in for the night; but that was mostly worked in around more clean-up work in the living room and kitchen and juggling bathroom time as we all got ready for bed.

Once Rowen and I were in bed, she started surfing the web on her computer; and I've been doing my usual bedtime computing. There wasn't any major family business work to deal with, but I did do a more thorough than usual news, sports, and entertainment check so I'll be up-to-speed at school on Monday with all of the required teen gossip and football data. That reminds me that there is one other piece of football news to report – the guys found out today that they'll be playing their second-round match on Friday against Mount Pleasant. That's a bonus for us because they were a surprise first-round winner; so we get another home game. I looked up the team stats for them this season too, so I'll be able to talk about that with Tim, Michael, and the other guys next week; but I don't have any predictions or anything just based on those numbers – especially after Mount Pleasant has already managed an improbable first-round win.

It's going to be a busy morning with eight teens sharing bathroom time, getting ready for church, and helping out and having breakfast; so Rowen and I should probably call it a night now. I'm wishing more than a little that Michael and I had been able to manage to have some quality alone time tonight too, but we did have a lot of fun with our friends instead. Maybe we'll look at making some time for just us next weekend. For right now, though, it really is time to call it a night; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Happy 13th Birthday, Jillian!

I hope that Jillian, and Dawn, are having a good day, and I sent a gift up to her; but don't have any other involvement in her birthday fun today. It's funny, but what I usually think about for both her birthday and Dawn's is that I'd be a grade behind Michael, Tim, and Rowen if my birthday had been just a month later than it was. Being one of the youngest in my year has really only been weird while everyone else crossed over ahead of me; but isn't really an issue now.

I'll let you know if I feel differently about that again when all of my friends start getting their driver's licenses ahead of me for that next, all-important teen milestone; though I don't think it'll be a big deal for me. At least Michael and Tim will be closer to the middle of the pack for that – and I'm sure that it's going to be a very big deal for Tim.

I'm going to move this along, because it's late; and I'm getting tired out fast. My day wasn't birthday party kind of fun, but being at Michael's house with a gang of teens did make for a very entertaining and crazy-busy few hours. Michael and I were on our own for Tai Chi; we helped with making breakfast and cleaning up while also taking turns hitting the shower and getting ready for church. Jacob made another amazing gourmet breakfast for us, and the only blip in the morning fun came when Lance once again left Jenny hanging and didn't go to church with us – or give her a ride there on his way back to Maple Valley.

Maybe going to a non-denominational church is against his religion. ;^)

Whatever his reason for doing that, Jenny wasn't happy about it; but didn't say anything until after he'd sped off in his car while we were getting ready to walk to church with my parents once they'd met up with us on their way there. The main teen news at church was the ongoing work during Sunday school that we're doing to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The kids are mostly doing Thanksgiving-themed lessons and crafts right now, but the teens are all working on everything from skits and songs to sets and props for the services we'll be leading – and the Christmas show.

That was fun, and so was my afternoon – whether studying with Michael, Tim, and Rowen during Michael's afternoon break or playing and biking at the park with Ethan and Ehlana. We had a nice day to be outdoors, and I really enjoyed spending an hour and change of play time with my brother and sister; but then I moved on to the Inn in time to help out with the buffets. It was a fairly busy night there, and we needed to work fairly hard to keep up; but I still always have fun with Michael and Rebecca. I stayed until the late buffet was winding down, but not until close this time so that I could get home and started on my usual school night work and studies. Michael and Rebecca were sent home then too, so I was able to do my goodnight hug and kisses with Michael on his front porch; but we didn't drag that out too long either. He was getting as tired as I was by then after a couple of late nights in a row.

Mom did my Magi lesson with me as soon as I got home, and Ethan and Ehlana were working on some college tests; so I didn't help with getting them off to bed until after they were finished their work for the night. I needed some Jacuzzi time after coming up to my room; but multi-tasked that with my archive assignment and language studies. Once I'd had a nice, long soak in the tub and had my hair dried, I continued the language study time in bed while cuddling with Mandy; moved on to the family business work from there; and did a last round of email, news, sports, and entertainment checks once I had the work finished for the night.

I don't have any news from any of that worth mentioning, but tomorrow is going to be a good day because Michael and Rebecca are going to be spending the night here while Miranda and Jacob head up to Garden City to see the newest member of the Stone family. They're going to leave early in the morning, and then get home again sometime on Tuesday evening. That'll mean basically having no break during their days off; but I'm sure they'll enjoy getting to spend a little time with Jacob's parents, sister, and the rest of their family there.

The football game on Friday is really the only other major event on the schedule for next week, so it might actually be comparatively quiet. If that works out, I should probably put in some extra time on my studies and family business job so that I'll be ready to work a bit less over the coming holidays; but we'll see how that goes. Something always seems to come up to add to the busy, and since I'm feeling tired almost every night right now; I may need to actually do a little less before I get too worn down.

I don't have enough hours left in the night right now to get a lot of rest, but it is time to wrap this up and get the few hours of napping in that I can manage before it'll be time to get up again for Tai Chi; so that's all for tonight; and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, November 10, 2014

You would not have known that a 'polar vortex' was on the way here today when the temperature was in the seventies this afternoon, but that's been changing overnight; and we'll probably be below freezing by morning.

That isn't a change that's going to be much fun to get used to over the next few days, but before I get to the report; I can't resist commenting on this whole polar vortex news idiocy. That term really caught on last winter during that cold blast we got when the temperatures actually dropped down into the negative thirties and even forties in some places. The news media seemed to fall in love with the term; and now it's everywhere – even when using the term is ridiculous. Come on, people – it's November, winter is on the way, and it gets cold outside. Calling this cold front a polar vortex is just silly. The temperature in the seventies today should be what's considered less-normal for this time of year; yet I didn't hear anyone calling it an equatorial vortex or some other nonsense.

Bottom line here, folks, is that cold in the second week of November is not some freaky anomaly, and while I love warm and sunny as much as the next girl; I also like having snow for the Christmas holidays, and cold is required for that to happen.

Cold weather is also good for promoting quality cuddle time with your favorite people too, and my top personal news tonight is that Michael and I actually got to have a little alone time tonight after Rebecca, Ethan, and Ehlana went to bed. I'll get to that part of the report in a minute; but let's back up and start from the beginning of the day.

Miranda and Jacob left for Garden City early this morning – even before we were up for Tai Chi. Rebecca and Michael were on their own to get ready for school, but Michael stayed with us for breakfast after we exercised by the river while Rebecca opted to fend for herself. While I'm thinking about her being on her own, I should also mention that Rebecca did have the option of staying home overnight tonight unsupervised; but chose to stay with us instead. That decision was all about avoiding peer pressure, and while Jenny is her best friend; Rebecca didn't want to get put in the position of hosting a school night teen party – and knew that would be exactly what Jenny would have wanted to do with a parent-free house opportunity. She is almost fifteen, and they'll need to deal with a situation like that some day in the not-so-distant future; but I'm glad that she's here with us tonight instead – and not just because Michael and I wouldn't have gotten to have that alone time if we'd been at a party at his house instead.

At school, football again ruled among the guys, and our team players are even more popular now that they've won their first playoff game. Tim loves that, and some of the other guys are enjoying the fame more than they should; but Coach Robinson started working on deflating any big heads during their first practice of the week. While football fever is running high, Thanksgiving is now just two and a half weeks away; and the themed crafts, games, and lessons are going on in nearly every class for all grades now. That's especially fun for the younger kids, but we're having fun in our classes too. Not all of my classmates would agree with that because we're also doing a fair bit of testing this week too; and that included two tests today. That had a few of my friends stressed out, but that isn't unusual; and Michael, Rowen, and I just try to help out when we can – though that isn't always possible when we're busy with everything else we have on the go.

For Rowen and I, that was cheerleading practice after school while the boys were busy with football. That workout was actually a bit strange because it was so warm out; but Dani had us working up a half-time routine geared toward what the weather is forecast to be like on Friday evening – freezing to a handful of degrees below freezing.

Would you like a hint?

Do you want to build a snowman? ;^)

That was fun, and so was our lunch break outdoors too, but that was pretty much all we got to do with enjoying the warm and sunny today; which had me missing the play time that we don't get to have anymore now that we're busy with so many other things. We haven't biked or played at the park after school at all; and I sometimes miss that freedom a lot. Rowen and I stayed at the school to catch the end of Michael and Tim's practice, and then waited to walk home with them after they had time to hit the shower and get cleaned up from their practice.

Rebecca had been busy after school too, but she was already at my house by the time Michael and I got there. Rowen took Tim home with her for dinner, but they came over after we all ate so that they could study with us. Mom and Dad had gone with an easy-dinner night, so both the meal and clean-up were quick; and then Rebecca, Michael, and I got started on our homework – doing that in the dining room instead of the lounge so that we didn't get distracted. Rowen and Tim joined us about twenty minutes after we'd started, and that was another little blast of fun as we finished our assignments and studied for our upcoming tests. Doing that work at Magi speed would have been nice, but since Rebecca was there with us; I wasn't going to be having a Magi lesson anyway; so that was a fairly equal time trade-off.

Rowen and Tim couldn't stay after that, so they left for their respective homes once we were finished studying; and Rebecca, Michael, and I went to have some play time with Ethan and Ehlana in my room and the lounge after that. Some music time was included in that; mostly so that Michael and I could practice for our music class, band, and praise team. Michael still hasn't been able to be at any band practices, but he will start going as soon as football is over; and we still need to get ready for the Christmas parades and concerts in December.

We watched a bit of television in the lounge too until Mom came to get Ethan and Ehlana to put them to bed; and my brother and sister recruited Rebecca to help out with that – and do their bedtime story. Rebecca was happy to do that, and then go on to bed too; which is how Michael and I ended up with that alone time – more than an hour and a half of it before we were ready to go to bed too. His sister was just down the hall from us in her room, and my parents were still awake and working in the office, so that play time didn't rank too high on the hot scale; but we still had a lot of fun and it was a lot hotter than anything else we've had the opportunity for lately so we're both happy campers right now.

I'm also very tired, since I got a late start to my bedtime work and studies; and it's going to be another one of those short nap nights too – though I'm definitely happier than usual after spending this many hours in the archives and on the family business. I do still have those tests at school and three practices tomorrow; so I should really wrap this up and get started on that down time. Some of that action is not going to be as much fun as it was today – especially if Dani has us do our cheerleading practice outdoors to get used to doing our routines in freezing temperatures – which I'm sure she'll do unless we have rain or snow too.

Now that's a word that scares some people around here when mentioned this early in November; but I'll save that kind of commentary for when and if I need it – like for whenever we do get that first big snow.

Right now, though, it's time for me to get some sleep; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

I am not going to tell anyone that I used the 'S' word in my journal last night, because that could put the blame for the white stuff that we woke up to this morning squarely on my shoulders. There wasn't a lot of snow, and the ground was too warm for it to hang around long; but there was a thick dusting out there first thing this morning.

Enough that Michael, Rebecca, and I had a nice little snowball fight in the back yard with Ethan and Ehlana between Tai Chi and breakfast.

That made for a fun start to the day even if it wasn't much fun going from warm and Tai Chi by the river to below freezing and snowy in just twenty-four hours. So was my wake-up call, thanks to Ehlana and Ethan waking Michael up first and then getting him to attempt the sleeping beauty wake-up for me while they watched on and giggled at us. Having snow outside and two of our favorite guests with us had Dad deciding to cook a pancakes and bacon breakfast for us, so the fun kept rolling while we enjoyed that; and then took turns getting ready for work or school along with getting the kitchen cleaned up. Mom and Dad didn't enjoy cleaning off the van and truck, but at least the driveway and sidewalks didn't need to be shoveled; and they did have some teen help for the work that earned us a ride to school instead of needing to walk there in the cold.

Rowen caught up with us in time to get a ride too, and that gave us a few extra minutes at school before classes started to check in with some of our friends and compare first-snow stories that were mostly all about playing in the fluffy white stiff. As I mentioned, it didn't stick around on the ground for long, and was pretty much melted by the time we were in our home rooms and getting started on our school day. The cold was a big story there today, but football still ruled. Now it just included speculation on what the sub-freezing weather might mean for our game on Friday. That will give the players on both teams a challenge, but I'm also sure that Coach Robinson will have the guys as ready as they can be by then. They certainly got a good chance to practice for that this afternoon – just as Rowen and I did for our cheerleading practice at noon.

Speaking of cheerleading, I can also report that Vanessa and Nora are finished being mad at us now for sure. Part of that was confirmed today when they were overheard joking about not being stuck outdoors and freezing at lunchtime today; but the main reason they're happy campers now is because they're going to be on the basketball cheerleading squad. Some of the other girls on our squad will be doing both, but it is optional; and Rowen and I both think that we have enough on our plates without adding another three or four months of practices and games to our schedule for more cheerleading. The fact that it works out great for Vanessa and Nora is a nice bonus; and we're happy to be off their naughty list in time for Christmas! ;^)

This update is getting a bit disjointed now, but while I'm on basketball; I should have mentioned in yesterday's update that Rebecca is trying out for the team this week. Unlike football, most of the girls and guys can make nearly all of the other sports teams, but Rebecca really likes court sports; and I'm sure that she'll be one of the best players – along with Carolyn Landry and the rest of the usual group of sport-loving girls she hangs out with. Carolyn will be happy to have Rebecca on the team with her for sure – though she isn't happy with me for declining her invitations to do several sports with her so far this year. I'd have fun doing that, but can't do everything; and playing on school sports teams just isn't high on my list of priorities.

Okay, let's get back to the school part of the report. It's Veteran's Day, so that was worked into the program, but since I just wrote a Veteran's Day in my journal last year; I won't bore future readers with yet another review so soon after that – and there wasn't as much going on for us anyway compared to last year when government and civics was such a big part of our curriculum all year. I had two tests; Michael, Rowen, and I aced them as always; and Tim is starting to scare himself with just how well he's doing again this year. I haven't mentioned his academic successes yet this year, and he isn't getting perfect marks all of the time like the rest of us in our little foursome do; but he is running a solid, low-nineties average in most subjects. What's funniest about that is the fact that he doesn't even really mention that with the other guys. For some strange reason, football stats are okay to be proud of; but being one of the top five students in every class is embarrassing. He is okay with the marks making his mother very proud and happy, though; so he keeps working with us even when he'd sometimes rather be doing anything else.

I don't feel as though I've had any down time at all since this morning; and found myself once again wishing that I had a little more free time and less responsibility and commitments. Cheerleading practice a noon; band practice after school; studying between then and our teen praise team practice; and that practice kept me busy through until nearly nine o'clock. Michael, Rebecca, and I even studied while having dinner. Add in a near-double Magi lesson after that; extra archive homework; an hour of language studies; and two hours of family business work, and it's been a very long day.

Rebecca went home tonight when Michael and I walked over to the church for our practice after we cleaned up from dinner. Michael went home after our practice because he knew how much work I had waiting for me at mine; and we even kept our goodnight hugs and kisses short – and out on his front porch in the cold so that I wasn't tempted to get comfortable with some cuddle time in his living room and end up staying there too long.

With his parents still inbound on their way home from meeting his new baby cousin; that was way too tempting. Yes, Aunt Leanne; I definitely need to get away from my parents more often!

That didn't happen tonight, though; and blowing off my responsibilities won't happen very often anyway.

There really isn't anything else that I need to write about from that studying and work tonight, though, and getting started on my nap now is an option; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Welcome to the scene of the junior Magi Master crash and burn!

I've definitely hit the wall with too many late nights and way too many hours of work and study. It's only a bit after nine-thirty, but I was dozing off in the office while trying to do more family business work; and I've been ordered to be. I'm too tired to argue with Mom or Dad about that, and since me running out of steam like this is probably the only newsworthy event in an otherwise quiet school, study, and work day anyway; I'm good with keeping this short and doing as ordered.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

I was back at full power this morning after getting the extra sleep last night; and we've had a pretty good day around here too – though still way too cold compared to the start of the week. When the temperature drops into the teens or low-twenties with a wind chill flirting with being a single-digit number; hovering around freezing by mid-afternoon looks good.

Not so much compared to when it was in the seventies on Monday.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining; joining the 'polar vortex' fan club; or thinking about applying a little Magi power to warm things up around here again – though that would be awesome!

I am saying that I'm missing Tai Chi by the river; and breaking out the winter coat, gloves, and hat already isn't all that much fun.

The weather has had something to do with why I spent most of my day indoors – except for our cheerleading practice. Dani felt the need to have us continue working out in the cold to get ready for the game tomorrow night. We do need to be ready for that, but sub-freezing temperatures are going to be harder on the spectators than on us or the players. I'd suggest that we won't have a big crowd if it is that cold by game time, but it's a home playoff match-up; so there will still be a good turn-out – even if that means huddling under blankets to stay warm.

Thanksgiving is two weeks from today, so football wasn't the only chat topic around school. Holiday plans are news now, whether that's because of trips being made or big family events at home; and holiday weekend shopping gets more attention from the girls than football for sure. A few of the girls are very excited about going away for Black Friday shopping adventures, and I'm sure that'll be fun for them; but Rowen and I will be happy to be here at home for that – unless we're away for a certain championship football game with our team and cheerleading squad. If that happens, I hope that Michael and Tim appreciate how much we love them to give up one of our favorite shopping days of the year – especially when it would even mean missing out on the first-ever Black Friday sale for the second-hand store.

Then again, that store is for charity and non-profit; so maybe I should just pay full-price there anyway. Now that would be a first – me not being excited about buying things on sale!

While cheerleading practice and spending time with my friends today was where a lot of the fun was; we did actually accomplish a few things at school too. There was one test, some free time to work on projects, and some play time in music that was masked in a lesson on writing musical scores for quartets or ensembles. Considering how much of my week days I spend in classes, I don't write about what goes on in them here in my journal; but I hope you understand that the what we do in those classes really is all for appearances. While I can and do have fun; I don't really think about the lessons any more than most people think about basic, every day activities that you do and just don't think about at all. Writing about a math test when it's not really any different than if I was getting tested on brushing my teeth or combing my hair just isn't something I think of as newsworthy.

I moved on from school to spend the evening at the Inn. That started out feeling a little strange because I was there on my own while Michael was busy with his football practice and Rebecca was at the last day of try-outs for basketball. The girls will find out the results tomorrow, but Rebecca is sure that she's made the team – and not just because Carolyn Landry assured her that she will. While Rebecca and Michael were busy, I had fun playing in the kitchen with Jacob and the rest of the kitchen crew helping out with the prep-line work. I got teased about getting as much work done as Rebecca or Michael and I get done combined when they're here, and that was actually true; but that worked out pretty well for us because Jacob didn't need the help by the time Rebecca and Michael did get there and we were set free to do our homework and have dinner.

Helping out with the kitchen clean-up after that wasn't optional, but there hadn't been a big dinner crowd; and we still managed to have that work finished by the time the gamers started arriving for game night. That was another blast of fun, and though Michael and I didn't win the junior championship; we managed to be top-three even with spending as much time with Ethan and Ehlana as we did focusing on the games. After missing out on my Magi lesson last night and having extra work waiting for me at home; I left the Inn with Mom, Dad, and the twins instead of helping with the clean-up.

Even with doing that, by the time I was finished doing my lesson with Mom and helped to get Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night; my bedtime studies and family business work didn't get going until nearly eleven-thirty. I got a lot done because I don't expect to have time to do much of that this weekend, but I'm also running low on power again; and the nap I have time for isn't going to be enough to recharge.

It's a good thing that I have other options! ;^)

It is still time to call it a night, though, and I don't have any other news from today anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, November 14, 2014

The game ended hours ago, and yet I still feel frozen solid. That's not actually true, and I'm warm, comfortable, and cuddling with Mandy in my bed as I write this; but the feeling lingers on anyway. Our team won the game, so that was great for us; but it wasn't any more fun for the players than it was for the cheerleaders or spectators. We're happy about the win; but we were also really happy to get indoors again once the game was over.

As for the game news, the thirty-six to thirty-two score might suggest that both teams had better defense this week, and on paper; it will look as though that's the case. In reality, the defensive wins were almost all due to offensive mistakes due to the cold; and we just made fewer mistakes than Mount Pleasant did. Caleb, Michael, and Tim each scored one of our three touchdowns; and Jason kicked five chip-shot field goals for drives that we couldn't punch into the end zone. Mount Pleasant scored four touchdowns, but only two field goals. Their last two touchdowns came late in the game, and in addition to missing other field goal attempts; their kicker also missed two extra points.

I've given Jason a hard time about his big ego in my journals; but I'll give him credit where it's due tonight – and he definitely out-played his Mount Pleasant counterpart tonight. Anyone who has kicked a frozen football knows that isn't easy.

On the cheerleading side of the game, our 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' half-time routine was another big hit – especially with the kids. The fact that our snow people just happened to resemble Principal Jacobs and Coach Robinson made it fun for most of the adults too; and we moved them to the sidelines for the rest of the game to help us cheer for our team. That was fun for us, but to be perfectly honest; the rest of the game was tough to get through with a smile on my face – though that might have just been frozen on for a big chunk of the game.

Caleb had the after-game celebration party at his house again this week; mostly because there's more space at his house than most of the other senior players – unless we wanted to take the party out to one of the farms. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I went to the party until midnight; and we mostly spent that time trying to get warm again while having a little fun with our friends. After a long day with not much sleep, I was past-ready to go home, so I walked Michael to his house; we did our goodnight hugs and kisses on the front porch; and then I hurried on to my place. That walk was another short blast of cold, so I came straight up to my room and got changed and into bed with Mandy.

Everyone else was sleeping by then anyway; so it's quiet around here. I've only done the bare minimum work tonight and no studying at all. I'm just too tired to put in the extra hours tonight; and I'll probably take tomorrow night off too. Michael and I have tentative plans for a quiet night in tomorrow; but that might depend on how much snow we get tomorrow. We're apparently somewhere on the edge of the incoming winter weather, so if we're lucky, we'll get a dusting; and if not, we'll get a couple of inches of the white fluffy stuff.

I foresee helping Dad out in the morning with getting his shiny new snow blower accessory attached to the now slightly-less shiny new lawn tractor just in case we get hit with the two inches of snow. We'll still need to shovel the sidewalks and porches by hand; but that snow blower is going to come in handy for the driveway this winter!

There really wasn't much going on today that was newsworthy compared to the football game. We're now one win away from a return trip to the championship game. The chances that we'll have that game at home are fairly slim, but we'll find out one way or the other sometime tomorrow – along with which team we'll be playing against. Looking ahead to the forecast for next Friday, the weather might be nicer than today, and warmer; but it's probably too early to count on that as being very accurate.

Whatever happens with that, we'll deal with it, but for right now; I really just want to put my computer to bed now and get started on my own cold, winter's nap. The rest of the weekend should be fairly quiet, and though I will be doing a fair bit of work too; I'm good with a break in the action. We won't get many more chances for that between Thanksgiving and the New Year; so I'll take them when I can get them.

Okay, that is everything I have for tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

We didn't get the snow that was forecast for our area, other than a few flakes here and there; but it did stay around freezing all day.

It was fairly quiet around here too, and other than the morning chores around the house and yard; I didn't even do a whole lot of anything. While we didn't get the snow, Dad and I did hook up the snow blower to the lawn tractor; so we will be ready for the white fluffy stuff whenever it does get here. We were done our chores by noon; had lunch; and then Ethan, Ehlana, and I were set free for the rest of the day while Mom and Dad both went to work in the office.

We spent the afternoon indoors, including while Michael was here on his break from the Inn; and mostly just hung out in my room and the lounge. We played some music; watched a movie; and Michael and Ethan played some video games. Dad is getting ready for his week in the city, so Mom went with an easy-dinner night that made for an easy clean-up too. Michael was back at the Inn while we were doing that, and I had some more quiet play time with Ethan and Ehlana until he got back again and we settled in to watch another movie. That was fun, but the highlight of my day was the alone time that Michael and I got to have after we tucked the twins in for the night.

Have I mentioned before that we need to make more time for that?

The good news is that we did get to have that kind of play time this weekend. Our opportunities for doing that could be fairly limited over the next month and a half – especially now that we have at least one more football game next weekend to go along with the Thanksgiving and Christmas events that will keep us busy through to the New Year.

That's not a very merry thought at all. Maybe we'll need to arrange for another 'accidental' sofa sleepover sometime soon if we can't find any other way to have some alone time for two. ;^)

I am a happy camper tonight, though, and so is Michael; so we'll just be grateful for having a really good day with a fairly hot, exciting, and happy ending. He went home at midnight; and I'm spending some time in my Jacuzzi as I write this and do the rest of my usual bedtime computing. Mom and Dad packed up and called it a night when Michael left, but let's not even think about what they might be doing right now in their Jacuzzi. Yes, I'm glad that they're having a happy end to their night – especially when Dad will be away next week; but no details are necessary.

It's just about time for me to get out of the tub and finish getting ready for bed anyway, and I don't really have any other news to report for today; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Happy 7th Birthday, Kaitlyn!

We sent gifts and had a breakfast-time call with her; but that was our only involvement in her special day. She did have a fun afternoon planned, though; so I'm sure she's had a great day.

It was definitely not birthday party exciting around here today, but before I get to that; I need to do the football report that I apparently wasn't excited enough about yesterday to add to my journal. Tim was happy to remind me today at church just how important it was; so here's the quick update.

For round three of the high school playoffs, we'll be on the road and up against Hillcrest. That news has a lot of the guys worried because Hillcrest handed us our first loss of the regular season back in week four; and that was on their home turf too. Their record for the season was better than ours too; so we've got our work cut out for us this time to overcome the odds. Tim is definitely one of the guys who are worried about the match-up, but Michael is okay with it – and they do at least have the advantage of some game experience against Hillcrest. Yes, that goes both ways, but I agree that it's better to be up against a team that you know a bit about instead of one you haven't played before at all – at least this season.

I'm not sure why Tim thinks that the college football report is all that important this week. Kyle had another good game, but his team lost again; and they basically have zero chance of earning a bowl game invitation. Rowen would tell you that Tim spent too much time watching and talking football yesterday, but she did eventually manage to distract him for a little quality make-out time too before she needed to go home for the night. If you're wondering whether Michael misses watching all of those games or not; I can assure you that he doesn't – and I'd know if he was just telling me that without meaning it.

Anyway, I'll skip the rest of the football chat that Tim needed to talk about with us, but if you're interested in the college highlights; I'm sure you can look up the history online – or however you'll do things like that in the future. My personal life was not at all affected by the number one college team losing their game – or by any of the other wins and losses. My day was filled with mostly-normal, unexciting action; but it was all important to me because I got to do everything with my family and friends.

Tai Chi was indoors; Michael stayed for breakfast so that he could get in on the phone call to Kaitlyn; and we had another busy morning at Sunday school while getting ready for Thanksgiving. Michael was at the Inn for lunch; so I was at home with Mom, Dad, and the twins for a soup and sandwiches lunch that Ethan, Ehlana, and I followed up with some play time while Dad got back to work in the office. Rowen and Tim came over in time to do homework with Michael and me during Michael's afternoon break; and then I went back to the Inn with him to help out during the buffet rush.

We stayed until close tonight because Miranda and Jacob were a little short-handed; so I came straight home from there except for a quick round of goodnight hugs and kisses with the Stone family in front of their house. Mom did my Magi lesson then while Ethan and Ehlana were finishing up some college assignments; I tucked them in for the night; and have been working on my computer since getting changed and into bed with Mandy. That was three and a half hours ago, but I had a lot to do – especially with Thanksgiving now just a week and a half away. With Dad in the city this week, Mom's going to be even busier than usual; and we need to get ready for the holiday weekend incoming.

This is going to be an extra-busy holiday for us – and especially for Michael and me because the Stone family is going to be here for this holiday instead of Christmas after deciding that they'd rather make the long trip with a new baby now instead of at the end of the year when the weather might not be very good. That is going to mean that I won't be able to do everything with my family, but since Michael almost always spends more time with my family; I'm okay with having the occasional weekend where we need to hang out with his family instead.

It's late, and I need to get up to see Dad off on his trip to the city in a couple of hours; so it's time to wrap this up and get started on that nap. That isn't going to be much down time for me, but I'd better just get used to that for the coming week – we're all going to be very busy. That is all I have for tonight, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, November 17, 2014

Our day started off very early with seeing Dad off on his way to the city; Ethan, Ehlana, Mandy, and I had a little nap with Mom after that; and then we've all pretty much been on the go since then.

For Mom and the twins, that meant spending the day at the lab while I was at school; and then we were all at home for the evening and doing everything from studying and family business work to some holiday weekend pre-cooking and cleaning. I was on my own for that tonight because Michael was helping out around his own house after football practice; mostly because we won't have much time to do that tomorrow night while we're busy with our teen praise team practice.

I don't actually have much in the way of actual news to report tonight. We had a fairly normal day at school, and the cold weather kept us indoors – though Dani had us outside for cheerleading practice again after school; and that wasn't a whole lot of fun. The one good thing for us about an away game, though, is that we're going to use the same half-time routine with just a slight alteration to our 'snowmen' to fit the occasion. Rowen and I only stayed for a few minutes after our practice to watch the guys on the football field, but their workout looked intense; and they're definitely getting focused on the challenge they're going to have with Hillcrest.

While we were busy tonight, the cooking, cleaning, studying, and work wasn't particularly newsworthy; and I'm mostly just tired out after doing all of that for about nine hours or so after we finished having dinner. We'll be doing more of the same tomorrow, with the addition cheerleading, band, and praise team practices for me; so I think I'll just wrap this up now and get started on the three hours or so of nap time I have available before I'll need to get up and going again.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

I'm going to keep this short, because it's late again; and I'm running on fumes.

It feels as though I've been on the run constantly since Tai Chi this morning – mostly because I have been. Whether that was being busy with my classes; cheerleading practice at noon; band practice after school; helping Mom out around the house when I could after that; our teen praise team practice earlier this evening; or the work I've been doing since then, there haven't really been any breaks at all today.

Michael was with me for dinner, and again after our praise team practice, so that was an improvement over not spending any time with him last night; but we also worked most of the time he was there. Even while having dinner with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; we still helped out with the pre-cooking that was in-progress; keeping that work going and eating on the fly so that we kept up with the cooking schedule that had the oven on and filled from late afternoon until shortly before we went to bed tonight.

I know, that seems like a lot, but with a big chunk of our family home for Thanksgiving this year, we have a lot of big meals to deal with; and Mom is taking on the bulk of that work for our collective families while Aunt Leanne is dealing with morning sickness now and Aunt Deborah and Aunt Grace are getting very close to their delivery dates. They're both doing pretty much all they can just to keep up with work and daily life now – especially when they're also getting ready to be off work for most of the winter. For Aunt Deborah, her maternity leave is scheduled to start after work on Friday, and while Aunt Grace is going to try to keep working right up to the last minute, their due dates are only about a week apart; and having two Thanksgiving babies is technically possible.

How awesome would that be?

Then again, if the guys win their playoff game this week and make it to the championship game next week; adding in two new babies being delivered over those four days when we'd be gone for two of them might be just a bit too much for us to deal with. That would also mean that we won't be around for more than half of those meals we've been cooking ahead for, and we'd miss out on the fun plans for Friday and Saturday too; but let's not go there unless we actually need to add a major football event to our holiday weekend. Actually, now that I think about it, Michael, Tim, and I might need to at least talk about that contingency tomorrow, and check in with Rowen's parents too. Her birthday is on that Saturday; and being away for most of the day would make it tough to have a party for her – though with holiday weekend guests and everything else; we weren't exactly planning on a major event anyway.

So much for this being a micro-report; but apparently my mind is rolling on despite being exhausted.

Since I'm not quite ready to pass out, and I'm thinking about the holiday; I should do a college teen update. Violet, Dillon, Josiah, and Christina will all be home for the long weekend; but since Violet and Dillon have the entire week off; they'll be spending the first half of the week in Woodvale; and then coming here with their family for the holiday. Jake and Stephanie will be staying in New York again this year; but will spend the four days together somewhere – and probably have a lot more fun than they would if they were here; working at the Inn on the Friday and Saturday; and trying to do that along with two tough travel days.

At least we'll get to have them home for Christmas.

All of that work at the Inn might be very motivating for Michael at the game on Friday – not that I'd suggest that he would intentionally play harder just to get out of helping out for two of the three busiest days of the year at the Inn or anything. It would be a nice bonus, though! I'd get to spend more time with him too, but since that's a trade-off with losing the chance to hang out with my aunts, uncles, and cousins; I have mixed feelings about that – especially when I won't get to see most of them very much at Christmas either.

I don't want to go there tonight, though; so let's move along. Michael went home at eleven as we were winding down the pre-cooking. Mom did my Magi lesson with me after that while Ethan and Ehlana did some homework in the office. We tucked them into bed by midnight; and I've spent the last three and a half hours doing my studying, archive assignment, and family business work. Nothing really needs to be added to that, and I really do need to get some down time now; so that's it for tonight.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

I'm going to keep this very short, because I'm worn out; and there isn't really much news anyway.

Before I get to the home update, though, I'm going to comment on the Polar Vortex – again – that's all the rage in the national news today. No, I'm not going to talk about the cold that's descended on us or the impressive snowfall in upstate New York; though the pictures of people building beer fridges into the snow piled up outside their house doors were funny. I'm going to comment on the fact that we've apparently missed almost all of the snow action; and it was comparatively warm around here today too. Not balmy, but well-above the cold we had during the first part of the week.

I only mention this because I want to assure future Magi that I did not do anything to tamper with the weather in our little neck of the woods – though I still think that it'd be cool if Mom would let us try. ;^)

Anyway, while a lot of people around the country are either dealing with bad weather or fascinated by it; I've just had a long, busy day of school, chores, studying, and family business work. There was a little fun mixed in here and there too, but nothing particularly memorable enough to mention here; and the work mostly just wore me down today. That's why I'm calling it a day before midnight for a change; and going straight to bed without passing go. No, I'm not writing this from bed as usual, but I am finishing up a semi-quick soak in my Jacuzzi; and will be going straight to bed as soon as I'm changed and have my hair dry – which will take about a minute if I use a little time-phase to speed things up.

Of course, the time-phase I'm using right now is why this is a semi-short soak in the tub; so holding on to it just a little longer won't be a problem.

By the way, if you're able to try that at home, don't start the time-phase until after you've filled the tub – unless you're planning on including the entire water-supply system in your time-phase.

I digress there, and really don't want to drag this out anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

It's been another long day, and it's past-three as I write this; but there has also been a bit more fun time mixed in with the work today than we've had for the rest of the week.

The family highlight of the night was watching Mom and Miranda have fun as they won the senior championship tonight, and while Michael and I didn't win for the juniors; we did well-enough and had lots of fun with Ethan and Ehlana too. I was at the Inn to help out after school, and that was both fun and a bit weird because Michael and Rebecca were both still at school with their football and basketball practices; so I was the only junior helper until they caught up with me once they were finished. That did get me some extra time with Miranda and Jacob that I don't normally get on my own, though; so I'm glad that I did that instead of going home for a while first.

Mom wasn't doing any pre-cooking tonight after her day at the lab anyway, so I wasn't needed there; though I missed out on dinner with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack when they decided to do that at the last minute and save Aunt Leanne a little extra work when she wasn't feeling that great after work. She didn't go to game night either, which was why Uncle Adam got paired up with Jacob for the night – and they mostly just played with Zack instead of concentrating on the games.

We had a quiet day at school, with cheerleading practice being the entertainment highlight at lunchtime; and the football game tomorrow night just edging out the Buffalo snowstorm pictures for top teen chat spot. Some of my friends and fellow students feel like we've been ripped off by not getting five or six feet of snow dumped on us – and the days off of school that would go with that kind of storm; but I'm not one of them. The guys on the football team are all on my side for that too; since that would have seriously messed up the football playoffs this week – though weather could play a big part tomorrow night anyway.

I've been avoiding writing about that in my journals, or really even talking about it; but the forecast hasn't exactly been shaping up in our favor as the week has gone along. As of right now, we're looking at what could be a cold, rainy night; with the possibility of a little wet snow mixed in too if the temperature goes the wrong way by a degree or two. Win or lose, that could make for a very unpleasant few hours for the players, cheerleaders, and spectators.

Maybe we should take our 'singing in the rain' half-time routine music and props along for back-up tomorrow night. Our 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' routine won't be as much fun if we're cold and wet.

Getting back to the news, I helped out with the prep line before dinner; worked with Michael and Rebecca after they joined us after their practices; and we had a short dinner break that included doing some homework once the main meal rush was over. I've covered the highlights for game night; and I went home with Mom and the twins after helping with the clean-up. Michael and Rebecca came with us while Miranda and Jacob stayed to deal with a couple of things at the Inn, so I was able to do my goodnight hug and kiss with Michael when we dropped them off at their house along the way; and then it was time to get back to work – starting with my Magi lesson with Mom.

Ethan and Ehlana worked on some college projects while we did that for an hour and change; Mom and I tucked them in for the night after that; we did a short bedtime chat with Dad; and then it was Mom's turn for an early bedtime while I came up to my room and got started on my studying and family business work. I had a lot to get done tonight, which is why I'm up late; but I'm also ready to take the weekend off – though I might do some extra work when I can anyway to keep ahead of the game with the holiday weekend coming up fast now.

The only weekend action on the radar right now is the football game anyway, and while I'm not looking forward to a cold rainy night; the extended bus or car ride each way isn't going to be a joy either. Three hours of round-trip travel time on top of everything else is going to mean no time left over to spend with Michael, and even if we win; the guys won't really be able to have a party after we get home again either. I guess we'd better try to come up with something to do together on Saturday night – though we're both going to be busy working all day – either at the Inn or here at home for me with the ongoing chores and pre-cooking as we get ready for the holiday. Dad and I will likely need to do a once-over at Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend so their place will be ready for when they get home; and Aunt Leanne might need extra help at her place too if she's having more tough days with morning sickness.

I really hope she has a better Thanksgiving for that than Mom did when she was pregnant with Ethan and Ehlana; though I'm also sure that Uncle Adam's family will pitch in to help if she does.

Anyway, the studying and work tonight wasn't particularly newsworthy, there isn't anything else to report tonight, and I'm ready for some quality down time now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, November 21, 2014

Sometimes you have to love it when a weather forecast doesn't quite turn out as expected – with the margin of error is to the up-side!

That would be why this Friday night update is beginning with the news that we had a rain-free football game; and the temperature actually rose from the mid-to-high forties instead of dropping after-dark. We did get some rain today – both before and after the game; but the window between those bouts of wet just happened to include the entire game and more than half of the drive time each way.

Field conditions at game time weren't quite as good at Hillcrest, and the home-town crowd was definitely against us; but those factors actually seemed to help our guys tonight. The action on our side of the field certainly looked more like our team last year instead of this version – without the huge, speedy presence of Kyle Landry. I say that, though, because half of our touchdowns, and both of our field goals came on turnovers of various kinds. Those six turnovers were the most important statistic of the game; and explained how we pulled off a sixty-two to sixty win tonight despite giving up seven touchdowns and four field goals and giving up a huge time-of-possession advantage to Hillcrest too.

When four of your scoring drives take less than fifteen seconds each; that last statistic is bound to look worse on paper than it should. As for the final score, for the non-football math geeks in the future Magi audience, the missing point in the Hillcrest score was due to their failed attempt at a two-point conversion on their last play of the game. An on-side kick attempt after that didn't work either, but even though Tim would have had a very good chance of running it in for another touchdown; he took a knee and we then ran out the clock on the next two plays instead.

On the football side of the night, my favorite moments were easily getting to watch Michael and Tim both have an awesome, three touchdown each game. Michael had two of his touchdowns on defense with long, amazing-to-watch pick-six interceptions. Both of them were game-changers, with the first one getting us on the scoreboard after giving up the first touchdown to Hillcrest in the first quarter; going nowhere on our first offensive drive; and then giving up big yards on Hillcrest's second drive up to that point. That catch and seventy-six yard run left the pro-Hillcrest crowd temporarily stunned; and fired up our team.

You can probably also guess by the number of scores that we gave up tonight that Hillcrest didn't have much trouble with our defense when they had eleven scoring drives. They did learn early to be very careful about play-calling anything directed at the receivers that Michael and Tim covered, but that still left a lot of options for their offense; and they have a good mix that we didn't match up against any better than in our first game against them.

Don't get me wrong – we had some really great moments too, and we earned our four offensive touchdowns; but it is also fair to say that Hillcrest beat themselves tonight. All four of our offensive touchdowns were on long plays where, Tim, Michael, or Caleb took advantage of broken defensive coverage – and by long, I mean over fifty yards each. The three defensive touchdowns that I haven't covered yet were also all long returns for scores. Tim ran his third-quarter pick for nearly sixty yards, and Michael's second, in the fourth quarter, was for seventy-five yards. Lucas had two fumble recoveries tonight, and earned his only touchdown of the game with a fifty-three yard run after getting his hands on a second-quarter fumble. Before I move on, he was also responsible for stopping that two-point conversion attempt, and his second fumble recovery was deep in Hillcrest territory, so while we didn't move the ball far; it was already close enough for a chip-shot field goal.

Moving this along, Hillcrest had a narrow, three-point lead at half-time, which is probably why our half-time, 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' routine was enthusiastically received by the 'enemy' crowd despite the fact that we poked a bit of fun at them by having the Hillcrest snowman 'accidentally' get knocked over while the Ridge River Raiders' snowman was left standing at the end of the routine. Cheering during the rest of the game was tough with a full house of spectators that were mostly trying to drown us out while messing with our offense; but then we still had our moments – like every time the crowd went silent and we cheered our heads off for Michael, Tim, Caleb, and Lucas.

The last comment I'll add about the football tonight, is that while quite a few of our guys had a really tough night, particularly the guys on our defensive line, they kept trying their best; and all of the guys are going to be paying for this win with a lot of bruises and sore everything by morning.

Okay, all of them except for one; but you can't blame me for needing to help Michael out with his aches and pains while we did our goodnight hugs and kisses tonight – especially after he was nice enough to walk me home from the school. I wish that I could do that for Tim too – the Healing, not the goodnight hugs and kisses – but that isn't an option; so he'll just have to deal with it the same as the rest of the guys will.

If you're suddenly getting a mental picture of all of the guys on the football team coming over to my house after every game and lining up a la Doc McStuffins for a cuddle, kiss, and Magi Healing; don't go there – I just did; and it was too weird for words. ;^)

Don't bust me on the Doc McStuffins reference either – Ethan, Ehlana, and I love that show!

Okay, it's time to move this along. The school day was just stuff to do between waking up this morning and going to the football game. The drive to Hillcrest was too long, but Rowen and I got our homework done for the weekend; so that was good. While Tim's parents aren't on the cheerleader volunteer drivers list, they were going to the game tonight anyway; so they took a minivan from work tonight; and brought Rowen, Jenny, Tammy, and me with them. Rebecca caught a ride to the game too so that she could watch Lucas and Michael play, and while she was also reporting for the school's online newsletter; Rebecca took some video highlights to share with her parents too.

That's definitely a down-side of running the Inn for them, but at least they did get to see one of Michael's games this season.

I do need to go back to the game for a moment, but only to mention that it took longer than usual. That's entirely because of having so many quick scoring drives from both teams. Twenty-one of them plus the couple of drives that didn't go anywhere for us made for a lot of down-time between scoring plays, set-ups for kick-offs, and the rest of the delays that go along with normal football game action. All of that was only to explain why we were so late getting home tonight because the hour and a half drive time was only part of that. It was twelve-thirty by the time we got back to the school; and after one before all of the gear was put away. Michael and I walked as far as Rowen's house with her and Tim, and then Michael came in with me when we got to my house. He only stayed long enough for a short cuddle time in the living room to go along with the Magi Healing, but we both have work to do in the morning; so he was on his way home before one-thirty.

I stopped in to give Ethan and Ehlana goodnight kisses while they slept, and found out that they have Aiden and Naomi staying overnight with them. Ehlana woke up and we talked for a minute; but Naomi, Ethan, and Aiden all slept through their kisses and having me pull the covers up around them.

By the way, I don't mention it often enough in my journal; but I really love Naomi and Aiden. They'd both be extraordinary in any other group of kids, so one of the things that are so special about them is how perfectly they handle being best friends with my off-the-charts brilliant brother and sister. Sure, I get to experience that every day for myself with Michael and Rowen, but it's also different for Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends. There wouldn't be any non-Magi in town who would believe it, but the four of them already have a bond that's going to keep them best friends forever.

It was past-two o'clock by the time I got changed and into bed, and while I didn't do a full study and work night, there was some family business to take care of; and I've needed some time to wind down from the busy day anyway. Not having a post-game celebration tonight makes it seem as though we missed out on some of the fun that's supposed to go along with big playoff victories like this one – especially when it means that our team will be going back to the State Championship game next Friday.

On the Thanksgiving weekend, with Rowen's birthday on Saturday; and while our families are home for four days. That didn't seem like as big a deal last year when we went to the game and most of our family was away; but it does this year. Remind me again why I'm not sleeping while I can right now? There certainly won't be much down time next weekend!

That has reminded me to check on how the other third-round game went for our small-school football group, and the winner is – Grand Summit! They've knocked off Clairmont, and I'll guess that will really bug the Clairmont players once they find out just how close they came to getting a re-match with us in the championship game. Our guys are probably going to feel better about facing Grand Summit instead; but it is a strange coincidence that our final two playoff games this season are also against the only two teams that beat us during the regular season. That was a close game, and Grand Summit only won by a point; but we'd better not be counting on a second game in a row where our opponent makes enough mistakes to more than off-set their offensive scoring.

It seems that no matter where my thoughts wander right now, this update is stuck in football mode. I don't want to head off to sleep on that note, so I'm going to wrap this up and do anything else to change tracks before I drift off into dreamland. I haven't seen Dad yet since he got home after I was at the game and he and Mom were sleeping when I got home, so that reunion will be fun in the morning; but then we're going to have a long, busy work day to get ready for the holiday weekend. I haven't covered the rest of the evening news from around here either; but haven't been given the report yet anyway. Mom was hosting a dinner and pre-cooking night; but I don't even know who ended up being here for that – other than Naomi and Aiden. I'll add that news to my next update if anything happened worth mentioning.

For now, that is all I have, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

It's been cloudy, and we've had a sprinkle or two here and there; but our day has actually been way better than expected today. The temperature even reached the sixties this afternoon; and Tai Chi by the river was an option this morning.

That was a nice bonus for the start of the day; but the good weather also meant that Dad and I got to do all of our outdoor chores to get ready for the holiday weekend. That included a bit of work at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and an hour of heavy-lifting assistance for Uncle Adam at his place; which is why we were on the go all day except for lunch and dinner breaks. While a lot of work was involved in all of that, Dad and I had fun together too; and at least it did mean getting to spend a lot of time together – something we haven't had a lot of lately.

I didn't spend as much time with Mom and the twins, but they were just as busy with more housework and pre-cooking and baking. Mom had a big group for her dinner and cooking night, but not a lot of help with the work. Aunt Leanne was feeling barfy and tired by then; Aunt Deborah and Aunt Grace were both worn out and ready to get their pregnancies over with now; and Uncles Adam, Nick, and Mark were all taking care of Zack and Leah while offering what help they could to Mom with the work. That all added up to not getting as much done as they'd wanted; and more work for this weekend. Mom wants to be done everything except for a bit of baking by Monday, though; so I'm going to help her tomorrow afternoon while Dad will be busy getting ready for his first work day back from the city on Monday.

I was set free after dinner tonight, but since we didn't stop to eat until nearly seven; I had enough time to grab a shower, dry my hair, and get dressed before Rowen and Tim came over to spend some time with Michael and me in the lounge. Ethan and Ehlana spent a little time with us too while we waited for Michael to get done at the Inn, but after Ethan and Tim played a few video games and Ehlana had a little girl chat time with Rowen and me; they went downstairs to hang out with Mom and Dad once Michael caught up with us.

Watching college football wasn't my idea of fun tonight, but Tim pointed out that we hadn't done that pretty much all season; so Rowen and I conceded the point and we watched parts of several games along with catching a half-time show football recap that covered the news from the rest of the games today. Rowen and I weren't interested in that at all, but cuddling with our boys worked for us; so we still had fun. Tim also tested me on a half-dozen play-calling challenges, but gave up when I went six-for-six and he didn't do as well with his guesses for other plays.

We also talked about the holiday weekend, and how the big game was going to affect our little break from school. Michael, Tim, and I will need to get together soon and work out some birthday plans for Rowen too, but we need to get the football itinerary first too; since we'll not only have the game this year, but we don't know whether Rowen and I will be able to attend the dinner and evening events that will be set up for the players, coaches, and staff. We also don't know when the team will be heading home on Saturday yet – or whether they'll catch any of the games then too.

We didn't really get to have a lot of time together – just a few hours. Rowen and Tim left at a quarter to twelve so that they could have a bit of alone time at her house before Tim needed to be home – and left Michael and me with a little time for a minor make-out session before he needed to leave too. That was fun, and while we were very tempted to use a time-phase to make as much time as we needed for that, I was tired out; and Michael didn't want me to wear down even more by doing that too. He left by shortly after midnight too, and after seeing him out; I had a little chat with Mom and Dad before we all came up to bed for the night.

I've mostly just been doing the basic nightly computer checks since snuggling with Mandy and getting to that part of my night. There was a bit of family business work to deal with via email, but that didn't take long; and I'm nearly ready to get started on my down time.

Other than helping Mom out in the kitchen, I don't have any specific plans for tomorrow. With the holiday weekend coming up, it should be a comparatively quiet night at the Inn; so I'll probably skip helping out there this week. Maybe I'll just get my usual school night work done early while we're cooking too if that's an option; and shoot for any early bedtime. We'll only have three days at school; but I don't expect to get much sleep between Monday and the end of the holiday weekend.

That sounds like a plan, and I'll let you know whether that works out or not, but that's all I have for tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

We did not escape the rain today, so it was a good thing that I stayed indoors except for the trips to and from church this morning – though Tai Chi would have been nicer out by the river.

The only news I have for today is that my tentative plan from last night has worked out pretty well. We had a quiet morning; the teens were busy at Sunday school with the final preparations for the Thanksgiving weekend service on Sunday; and I both helped Mom with the work in the kitchen while also doing my usual bedtime studies and family business work. We even did my Magi lesson this afternoon too; and Michael got to join in for that during his break from the Inn.

We had a late dinner after getting all of the pre-cooking done; I helped with the clean-up; and I'm now spending some quality time in my Jacuzzi. I need to get out of the tub soon because Ethan and Ehlana are going to tuck me in and do the bedtime story with me instead of the other way around tonight; and I plan on being asleep by shortly after nine o'clock.

That'll be a fun way to end the day, and I'm definitely ready to get to the down-time part of my night; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, November 24, 2014

I'm going to start this update with the news from our family business meeting tonight; mostly because it included the most important information – though not all of it would actually be news to the people involved with the various projects.

First up, despite the weather flip-flops, the main structure of the new medical center – which I should really call the Witch Falls Professional Building since it is going to have more there than just the clinic – is completed now; and the construction crew will spend the winter working on the interior of the building all winter. It is also still on-time for being ready to open by the end of this coming June; so it really won't be that much longer before Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark will need to start getting ready for the move from the old clinic.

Aunt Leanne will start working on a side-project to go along with that in the New Year too – and we have plans for re-purposing the old clinic that will be important for a lot of families in town; including ours.

Next up, the second apartment building is closed in and ready for interior work all winter too. That project is booked to be completed by sometime in June too; so that'll keep all of the construction crews busy through until then. We have a break for major construction planned after that, and won't need the full construction crews after that, but there will still be lots of work for everyone interested in staying in Witch Falls and more who will likely continue to rotate in and out as the members of the current crews do now.

The Second-Hand Store opened today, and while I didn't have time to check it out tonight; I'll get there sometime this week. I hope they do well and everyone helps to support their charity efforts. Mom and Aunt Leanne stopped in and picked up a few things each; though that was also mostly kid stuff. Aunt Leanne will be in need of maternity clothes in the not-too distant future; and Mom didn't really look for anything for herself today after spending most of her time going through the kid clothes with Aunt Leanne. It was apparently a quiet day in the store – at least up to the time they were there; but I'm sure they'll be busy this weekend. I just wish I could be here for the shopping too!

There were project updates tonight for the solar-wind farm and other infrastructure plans, and while all of that is good for everyone in town; it wasn't exactly the most exciting part of the night for me. Being self-sufficient for electricity by the end of the summer next year will be cool, though; and it'll be nice to have a near-zero worry about power outages after that during the winter. I guess there is one other infrastructure project that'll be fun for us; though that's because it'll mean getting to see the Malloys in town now and then while Terry handles the civil engineering for a second bridge that we're going to put in between the new section of town and River Road. That'll eventually put Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace a hop across the river from the lab and med center once it's completed; but it's more to resolve the long-standing problem of only having one bridge across the river with a huge detour anytime the Quarry Road bridge needs to be closed for any reason.

We also did another update tonight on high school senior plans, and while I'm not directly involved in any of that; it is still nice to see that we're planning for the future in ways that were never done to any real extent before here in town. There are going to be new opportunities available around here for decades to come now; so thinking five or six years out doesn't seem like a big deal right now. Some of those opportunities, like for Violet and Dillon, are specifically for Magi; but there are going to be a lot of new jobs available for young adults doing a lot of different kinds of high-skill work – whether they're Magi or not.

Finally, at least for tonight; we did a fairly extensive review of the family business. Pretty much everything we have going on right now is continuing to get better and better, and as our business interests continue to expand; we have more opportunities for our charities – and money to spend on them. Nancy Emerson practically has a full-time job coordinating our local travel volunteers; though she has lots of help for that now too. There's too much going on with everything to write about it in any detail here; but there are other, better archive sources for that data anyway. Bottom line here, though, is that we've done good for yet another year – even with all of the challenges for business and charities around the world.

Compared to that, the rest of my day seems trivial. Football reigned supreme at school; the guys on the team are practically superheroes to the younger boys; and Dan had her cheerleaders working extra hard today at our practice to get us ready for an appearance on a very big stage this Friday. Travel and hotel arrangements have been taken care of already too; so we know what's going on with that too; but we don't know everything yet – like whether the guys will be able to take dates to the dinner they'll have Friday night. I'll keep you posted on that.

Our cheerleading practice was nearly as long as the football practice, so I waited for Michael; and went home with him for dinner – and to do our homework before I needed to be home for our little meeting. We didn't have time for any music practices, so I did that on my own after the meeting to get ready for band and praise team practices. All of that extra activity meant a really late start to my study and work time tonight – like after midnight kind of late. There was a Magi lesson tucked in there too, and I spent some time tucking Ethan and Ehlana in when they were ready to go to bed; but that was all fun – even though that play time added to the late night I'm just getting to the end of now.

I don't have anything to add from all of the studying or family business work. The main reason I've stayed up so late is because I really only have one more night to get my work done for the week now; so I'll have another late night tomorrow – right before we get to the holiday weekend late nights with family and friends starting with the incoming family on Wednesday night.

That thought has me wishing that taking a vacation next week was an option to rest up ahead of Christmas; but that won't be an option either. I'll have to go with a little Magi-powered self-healing when needed – which I expect to need in a couple of hours when I need to get up and going again.

Nap time is next on my to-do list for that couple of hours, and that's all I have for today anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Congratulations, Aunt Deborah, Uncle, Nick, Leah, and everyone else in our families – it's a boy!

Sebastian Nathaniel Ayres was born at ten fifty-one this evening; weighed in at exactly eight pounds; and is already obviously his Daddy's son – if the pictures that Grandma Lydia showed us of Uncle Nick as a baby are any indication.

I was at the clinic for the birth, and while Michael stopped in there on our way home from teen praise team practice; he didn't stay because he has a football bedtime curfew this week, and we didn't know when he left just how quick Aunt Deborah's labor would go. Mom and Dad were there, but the Drapers and Seagers took Ethan and Ehlana tonight in case Mom and Dad needed to be up all night. Pretty much all of the Ayres-Johnson clan was at the clinic too; so we had lots of company – and opportunity for fun and entertainment too.

A new baby in the family was definitely the highlight of my day; though I was mostly on the sidelines for all of that action while Uncle Adam took care of the delivery with assists from Great-Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. Aunt Deborah's parents are here by now too; though they were still inbound by the time I went home with Mom and Dad. The rest of the Johnson-McEwan clan will just come as planned tomorrow night; mostly because they've been ordered to give Aunt Deborah the time to recover before descending on Witch Falls for the long weekend.

Getting to hold Sebastian for a couple of minutes was great too; though I was near the end of that line too – and Mom and Dad basically let me have their turn while hugging both of us. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting going on for the rest of the time I was at the clinic; so I used one of the offices and worked on my computer instead of just being in the way of the adults in the waiting room. Doing homework was my cover story for that, and I did my school assignments too; but that took about a minute – literally; since I was able to take advantage of working at Magi speed while wards and shields were being used anyway. Mostly, I worked on my language studies and family business work; though I took regular breaks to check in on the latest baby news too – both before and after Sebastian was born. All of that was for show with the non-Magi in the building; since everyone else knew that I was in the loop for what was actually going on in the delivery room. As I already mentioned, I wasn't directly involved in any of that work or the shielding; and that was mostly because Uncle Adam just didn't need my help this time. That might have changed with a long labor if everyone else got tired out.

Everyone who did help tonight is likely tired out by now – and so am I; so let's move this along so I can get to my nap time.

Backing up to the start of the day, it was below freezing again this morning; so Tai Chi was indoors. The rest of the morning was fairly standard and uneventful; and school was more play than work with just two days left to the holiday weekend. I didn't have any spare time with cheerleading practice at lunchtime; band practice after school; and teen praise team practice after dinner. Michael was at our house for that dinner break, but by the time he got finished with the last big football practice before the championship game; we basically had time to eat fast and run to get to the church by seven o'clock.

Aunt Deborah went into labor right around that time; was in the clinic by seven-thirty; and nearly half-way through the process by the time Michael and I had gone back to my house and we'd been re-directed to the clinic from there. Michael stayed with me there until nine-thirty before going home; I've covered my personal news from what happened after that; and Mom, Dad, and I came home again at one-thirty – after Grandma Lydia and Great-Grandma Johnson kicked us out for the night – along with all other 'non-essential personnel'. Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick have lots of support overnight, and Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark split the night shift – with Uncle Mark taking over about an hour and a half ago.

Mom and Dad went to bed after we got back here, and I hopped into my Jacuzzi for a soak while multi-tasking my work – mostly because it might be my last chance for some tub time until after our family goes home again on Sunday. That didn't slow my work down very much, but it did still take until after four to get everything on my to-do list finished. I'll still need to keep up with the daily work email and business; but shouldn't have anything major come up between now and Sunday.

I'm going to need to do another self-healing in a couple of hours to make up for the lack of sleep; but at least I am ready for the fun we're going to have over the next five days that should be even better with the added entertainment that Sebastian's arrival is going to provide for all of us. It's nearly four-thirty now, though, and the nap time will help me re-charge at least a little bit; so that's it for tonight.

Stay tuned for what should be a very interesting holiday; and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

This has been an insanely, crazy-busy day!

I'm saying that, and didn't even have major events going on – like bringing a new baby home from the clinic; like Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick did this afternoon. I did have a cheerleading practice after school; help Mom with some last minute work around the house; and then be part of two welcoming committees for incoming family at our house and at Michael's too. He had football practice and then helped out with the dinner rush at the Inn before meeting up with me to play host for his incoming family; so he wasn't exactly bored either.

I'm going to skip the school report, since it was the day before a holiday weekend; and we mostly just played anyway. We were given some homework; but nothing major – and we can deal with that on Sunday after our guests head for home. Our cheerleading practice was still on today because we can't do a practice tomorrow and the game is at noon on Friday; but we basically just ran through our routine a few times and fine-tuned it before calling it a school-week.

Once I got home, Mom put me to work taking care of some chores that she didn't get done today while helping Uncle Nick out with some work at their house to finish getting ready for Sebastian – and she took a turn with Leah too. Ethan and Ehlana were at KidZone for most of the day with Naomi and Aiden; but were home again by the time I got there. Mom had also done the supply and grocery shopping; and had everything put away by then too; so our work was mostly along the lines of a final once-over of bathrooms; bedrooms; and the main floor before the Rice family arrived. We just did a snack dinner after Dad got home; and then we had our first incoming arrivals – Violet, Dillon, Dawn, Chris, and Martin.

They'd left as soon as my younger cousins were out of school instead of waiting for Uncle Rick, Aunt Melissa, and their grandparents; and while they could have all gone in Violet's car; Chris and Martin drove their car too – supposedly so that their parents and grandparents could come in one vehicle together and still have enough room for everyone for the return trip to Woodvale when Violet and Dillon wouldn't be going with them.

I loved getting to spend some time with Violet, Dillon, and Dawn, but Violet and Dillon didn't stay very long before going on to have a visit with his family; and I needed to go with Michael not long after he joined us so that we could take care of a few minor chores at his house before his guests arrived. We invited Dawn along, but she opted to hang out with Ethan and Ehlana instead of sitting around and watching us work – or joining in to help. We've had a couple of hours of chat time that just ended a little while ago, though; so we made up for that time I couldn't spend here earlier.

While I would have loved to spend more time at home, this was one of those times when Michael needed me there for his family; and I'm okay with that too. Getting to spend some time with his new baby cousin was a blast too; though it also reminded me that I've had zero time with Sebastian today – and probably won't even see him much this weekend while his entire family is here competing for time with him – and with Leah and Zack.

Michael's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins all arrived together in a three-vehicle convoy. His aunt, uncle, and working cousins all left work a bit early, but they still have a six hour drive on a good day; and they were on the road for nearly seven and a half today – a particularly tough trip for the two kids and their parents. I'm sure that had a lot to do with why our offer to take care of both kids while the adults settled in and relaxed was so readily accepted. Michael played with one and a half-year old Gerry, and the toddler was fired up with energy to burn after all of those boring hours in the car. I cuddled with baby Annie after her Mom, Heidi, nursed her; and she was wide awake for quite a while too after sleeping through the last part of their trip. Annie – Annette – is just coming up on three weeks old now; so she was quite content to just watch the action and let me hold her. That made my job a lot easier than Michael's; but he managed to keep up with his busy little cousin.

I'll guess that at least some of the members of his family are having a long night, since Annie is apparently only sleeping for no more than a couple of hours a night; but Miranda will probably help Heidi and her husband, Drew, with the baby – at least for tonight when she won't need to be at the Inn first thing in the morning. Eric and Sally probably have Gerry sleeping by now as I write this; but he was still bouncing off the walls when I came home at eleven o'clock.

Rebecca joined us after staying later than Michael did at the Inn, and then Jacob and Miranda got home at a bit after ten by the time they'd made sure that their guests at the Inn had everything they needed; and the dining room and kitchen were set up and ready to go for the Black Friday buffet breakfast. Jacob's work wasn't done for the night yet, but they both took a break for a visit with his parents and the rest of his family before he needed to do some prep work for their Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Sometimes, I have no idea how Michael's parents keep up with everything – they really are amazing!

Moving along, I stayed and played with Michael and his family, as I mentioned, until eleven, and then spent a few minutes on the front porch saying goodnight to him in a mostly non-verbal sort of way before coming home. Our guests were mostly ready to head to bed by then, so my living room visit with the parents and grandparents was fairly short.

Oh yeah – welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa! We didn't get to visit much today, since you were doing dinner with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack tonight; but we'll catch up sometime this weekend before you head back to Arizona again until Christmas – hopefully.

Chris and Martin had been in the lounge by then for hours; and had Jonathan with them pretty much from the time he got to town with his parents. I haven't seen any of the McEwans or Johnsons yet; but I'm sure we'll spend some time together tomorrow too. With everyone here, I should be able to spend about two minutes with each person before bedtime. ;^)

It has been nice hanging out with Dawn, though; and we spent part of our time after coming upstairs for the night sitting in the lounge and talking while watching the boys play their games. We talked with them too, but that wasn't as interesting for Dawn as it was for me; since she's stuck with two out of three of the boys year-round – at least until Chris starts college next summer. Now that's a scary thought! Also on the scary list is hearing about all three guys and their current dating status; with the scariest part of that being that I'm the cousin in the group with the longest-lasting relationship – and by a big margin. The next closest is Chris, and he's not sure whether he'll still have the same girlfriend by Christmas.

I'm not going to go there, or make a big deal of it with them, but I really hope that none of my cousins are part of the teen group of both guys and girls who do pre-Christmas break-ups just to avoid spending money on gifts. Call it a pet peeve or whatever; but I think that kind of thing is fairly rotten.

On the girl-cousin side of our chat time tonight, Dawn is not in a steady relationship right now, but she is hanging out with a guy in a non-dating sort of way so that she isn't a third wheel with Jillian and her boyfriend when they want to do things together. She likes boys just fine – but just doesn't have anyone she's seriously interested in right now. Dawn has other, bigger dreams – like learning to fly airplanes and becoming a pilot.

They boys are still gaming in the lounge, and Jonathan is staying overnight, but Dawn ran out of steam a little while ago; which allowed me to do my bedtime computing – and this journal update. There's so much going on around the family that there's no way for me to cover it all here; but I'm sure that most important news will make it into the archives somewhere with all of the sources we have now – whether that's through personal or child-progress journals or everything else we collect for the archives now.

I'm going to be attempting to juggle four family Thanksgivings tomorrow, though, and need to get some sleep now; so that's it for tonight, and until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

It certainly has been a happy day around here – along with crazy, busy, and exhausting!

Tai Chi this morning was about the only quiet time Michael or I had through until tonight; and only about ten minutes ago for me when Dawn finally fell asleep and I could get started on my bedtime computer checks. I'm not doing much of that, because I need to be up early and get ready to leave for the football game; but I did at least want to write this and get my email checked in case there were any family business jobs that needed to be dealt with before I head out tomorrow.

I helped on the cooking side of breakfast after seeing Michael out and on his way home after Tai Chi; breakfast was in the dining room; and non-stop action for an hour; and then I took my turn getting ready for the day along with still having time to help with part of the kitchen clean-up. Oh yeah, and the breakfast cooking time included getting a turkey in the oven and other early-morning dinner prep-work. I wasn't home for that family dinner, but I can't honestly be too sad about that; since I was at the family dinner that Jacob cooked for the Stone family today. I'm not suggesting that I'm going to keep Michael just for the food his father cooks; but it is a seriously awesome bonus that goes along with the rest of the amazing package! ;^)

To be honest, the rest of the day from then until we sat down to that amazing Thanksgiving dinner was a bit of a blur. Yes, I remember every single detail, and can replay it all later; but it felt as though we didn't actually do anything except run around from house to house and spend a few minutes here and there with as many people as we could. Michael and I did at least get to mostly do that together, and we had others with us for parts of those visits; but we didn't really have time for more than those short visits.

For me, that started out at his house; we did another visit with his cousins; moved on to spend some time with the Bassetts – and Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia in particular; and wrapped up our morning with a visit to Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and their gang. Lunch was at my house; afternoon visits included stops at the Everett and Emerson houses; and then we were at Michael's house for dinner with just the Stone family. They'd considered including the Bassett clan too, but decided against that – mostly so that Jacob could have the time with his family without the extra company around; and so that it wasn't too much for Annie or Heidi to deal with.

That was my favorite few hours of the day – especially since Michael and I got to do that with Rebecca and Lucas. He'd had to pick between family dinners too, since it wasn't an option for Rebecca; but that wasn't any tougher for him than it was for me. Jacob's family only comes home once or twice a year; and we'll support Rebecca and Michael because they do the same for us the rest of the year with our families. While Michael and I were out of the loop for cooking dinner at his house, that was not the case for the clean-up. We were drafted right along with Rebecca and Lucas, and since Jacob's parents are old-school when it comes to guests doing any work; we did not have relative support for that as we would with my family, so we were kept busy doing that for about an hour and a half.

By then, there wasn't much time left for more than a visit with Michael's cousins, and then it was time for us to move on again – to my house for the rest of the evening. My lounge was teen and kid central for the Proctor clan; and we also had extra overnight guests. Jaimie and Kaitlyn are camping in the lounge now; and Jayden is doing a sleepover with Ethan in his room. Jonathan isn't here tonight; but only because his mother insisted on him spending some time with his own family – and Christina and Josiah while they're home for the weekend from college.

Speaking of college, I actually 'saw' Jake and Stephanie more than Violet and Dillon – through a video chat with them live from New York during dinner at Michael's house. Violet and Dillon were on a different schedule than I was for meals; and she's staying with his family instead of us while they're here after getting to spend the first half of their break with her family in Woodvale. We did cross paths for a minute once; but it doesn't look as though I'm going to see them much before they head back to school on Sunday – especially when I'll be very busy for the next two days.

Anyway, teen and kid play time in the lounge, and my room, was a lot of fun; but Michael had to be home early for his football curfew. The team will be leaving very early to get to the stadium in time for warm-ups and a walk-through – the downside of being the smallest of small school classifications and drawing the first championship match. The good part of that, from my perspective, is that we'll have a lot of time left over after the game for fun – whether we're celebrating a championship or not.

Moving this along, Michael went home before Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were sent to bed by the parents, and the two boys had fun playing video games with Chris and Martin right up until getting their bedtime marching orders. Ehlana spent that time with Dawn, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and me. We split our time between the lounge, my room, and one visit with the parents and grandparents in the living room. I haven't mentioned pro and college football yet, but that was part of the action at every house today too – at least from the time the first games started this afternoon. I'm glad that all of the guys had fun watching parts or all of those games, and I will get the game stats in time to keep up with the inevitable football talk Tim will be doing for the rest of the weekend; but game results are not interesting enough to me to list them here in my journal.

The bedtime girl chat with Dawn, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn was much more entertaining, and a nice bonus that came along with having my younger two cousins here for the night was that Chris and Martin didn't play video games in the lounge half the night like they had with Jonathan last night. They instead went down to the living room not too long after Ethan and Jayden went to bed; watched some football with some of the other guys; and are now playing video games down there instead – probably for half the night.

I won't be staying up for that, though; since I do have that early wake-up call coming to get ready for my own championship football-cheerleading adventure trip. We really have had an awesome Thanksgiving even with all of the crazy-busy, and there was way more happening than I could ever include in this update, but I have covered the basics; so it's time to call it a night and get as much rest as I can to be ready to cheer my head off for Michael and our team tomorrow – along with everything else we'll be doing!

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, November 28, 2014

Michael, Tim, and the rest of their team won their Championship game today!

I'll get to that soon, but let's try to do this update in order.

My wake-up call came way too early, but I was still fired up and ready to go right away too. It's not as though I hadn't known it already, but it definitely sucked to start out my Black Friday with a bowl of microwaved oatmeal cereal and a bagel instead of getting to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Inn. Unfortunately, we – the cheerleaders – were on the road for the State College stadium by the time the Inn opened for business.

Rowen and I were in a minivan with Anna-Marie Palmer and Erica Bassett this time because Jenny was with Tammy and her family today; since Tammy's brother, Jeff, had a big group of family members at the stadium today to watch his last high school game. That worked for us, and we had a blast hanging out with Michael's cousin and Josiah's sister. It's funny that I've been a cheerleader with them for three months now, and still think of them that way instead of as friends, but other than cheerleading and after-game parties; we don't exactly hang out together. Two years is still a big deal when the younger teens are in Grade Nine.

The two and a half hours we spent on the road were uneventful; though we did keep ourselves entertained. I even got to do a little future plans 'work'; though that isn't exactly the right word for it – I mostly just nudged the conversation in directions I wanted it to go a few times and encouraged some education and career ideas for Anna-Marie and Erica. I won't be the only person doing that over the next year or so; though I don't think we need to actually do much with that – other than make sure that all of the teens around town are aware of all opportunities available to them.

Michael, Tim, and the rest of the guys had left more than an hour and a half before we did, and by the time we were in the stadium; they'd already done their walk-through; and were having their turn at on-field warm-ups. Grand Summit got to have the better time slot for that because they had the better record. We were led on a tour of the stadium too; but used other rooms in the building for our own warm-ups. We had to share change rooms with other squads for all of the games; including the Grand Summit squad; but it was just our two groups there up until about an hour before game time when the next pair of squads arrived to start getting ready for the game after ours – and probably catch some or all of the first match too. Getting to meet the other girls was fun, and there was some good-natured rivalry banter; but we were all also really busy and didn't have too much time for that.

The last half-hour or so before game time was just a blast of activity as we got set up on the side-lines – at the same time the volunteers were doing the same for our team while Coach Robinson was busy in the locker-room with his players. All of that was a lot different than last year, when Rowen and I were spectators; and it was really amazing when we were surprised with our own, personal fan club. Okay, not all of us were surprised, since I knew when Dad and Ethan were no longer in Witch Falls and on their way here; but it was still awesome – and they brought some of the other guys from our families with them in two vehicles. I'll guess that the parents got together and bought a block of seats again this year, because they were all in one area, and while buying tickets wouldn't have been a problem even right up to the start of the game; it was nice having a lot of the cheering for our guys coming from one place.

In addition to Dad and Ethan, we had Uncle Rick, Uncle Blaine, Chris, Martin, Jonathan, Patrick, Jayden, and Aiden at the game. They were all there to support Michael and Tim too, but our boys actually had fewer of their own relatives at the game. Tim's Dad was there, but his Mom stayed to help out with the big shopping day at the dealership. Michael's cousin, Ryan, got a ride with a group of Bassetts and Palmers, including Josiah, who were there for him and Caleb; but none of his Stone family cousins wanted to spend another five hours in the car today on top of the rest of their travel time this weekend. I get that, but still wish that even one of his cousins had cared enough to make the extra effort anyway – especially since this really was a big day for Michael.

That brings us to game time. Watching my boyfriend getting introduced with the rest of his team on a big stage was really thrilling. The pre-game festivities don't take all that long for a high school Championship, but that was a fun little blast of action; and then, almost too-suddenly, the game was on!

We lost the coin-toss, and Grand Summit deferred so that they could receive the second-half kick-off; so our team started out on offense – and probably had Grand Summit wishing they'd made a different choice. On our third offensive play of the game, Michael caught a pass from Jeff Morris and then ran it down the field for a sixty-one yard touchdown. That first drive took less than a minute of clock time; and set a trend for our team – and for the game.

Though Michael's quick touchdown had shocked the Grand Summit players and coaches, they recovered quickly enough; and their offense marched down the field and scored on their first drive too – and on every other one all game except for three out of the last four drives of the game. Defense might normally win games; but it didn't today. I'm not saying that defense didn't play a role at all, because it did; but just not in any way that showed up on the scoreboard. For Grand Summit, there defense practically shut down our running game. Unfortunately, they didn't have an answer for Jeff Morris and his two, comparatively diminutive, freshman receivers. Considering the fact that they did win their game against us in the regular season, you'd have thought that they'd be ready for that; but I guess that Michael and Tim did have an especially amazing game today compared to that one.

On our side of the defensive game, we did a fairly decent job keeping the Grand Summit receivers from earring any big-yardage plays on the outside, thanks mostly to Michael, Tim, and our safeties; but we got killed on the ground and up the middle of the field for most of the game – at least until the wheels started falling off for Grand Summit in the fourth quarter. Without Kyle on our team, we weren't surprised that Grand Summit went after us there; but the one big factor that was a game-changer with the differences in our offensive successes was that Grand Summit used up a lot more clock time than we did – mostly because our plays either ended out-of-bounds or with incompletions. They chewed up clock time with every play that didn't end in a first down or touchdown.

Getting back to the game in progress part of the report, we basically exchanged touchdowns with Grand Summit; and Michael and Tim took turns earning all of ours while Caleb and Lucas were pretty much stymied on the ground game. They did eventually run up nearly one hundred yards between them; but it was mostly nickel-and-dime yards that they had to fight hard for – and usually run a lot farther side-to-side to get even a couple of positive yards gained. For our side, Tim scored our second and third touchdowns, Michael had our fourth, and then Tim added a fifth to give us a seven point lead going into half time.

Rowen and I had a blast cheering for our boys on the sidelines, and while we couldn't exactly run into the end zone to give our heroes hugs and kisses after each touchdown; they knew that we were very proud of them – we were literally jumping, dancing, and flipping for joy! That brings us to our half-time routine, and while I'm sure that mash-ups are big with cheerleaders everywhere right now, Dani picked the music from the Pitch Perfect competition finale for our routine; though our actual routine didn't resemble that stage scene in the movie – except for the looking to the left and right thing. We had a bigger audience, and they seemed to enjoy the routine; but I don't think it was quite as popular as our 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' routine was when we did it at home. We had fun, though, and earned some cheers and whistles; so I'm a happy camper – and Dani was thrilled to have pulled it off as our senior captain. Grand Summit has a bigger cheerleading squad, and I liked what they did too; but I'll give the half-time win to our squad – even if I am biased.

Grand Summit tied the game on their next drive – the first of the second half – and then we were right back to exchanging touchdowns. Since Tim had earned three of our first-half touchdowns, Grand Summit tried to clamp down on him in the second half; which just allowed Michael to score our next two touchdowns in a row – both of them on long, fifty-plus yard catch-and-run plays. We were tied at forty-nine when Tim earned his first touchdown of the second half to give us a seven-point lead again, thanks to another defensive shift that tried to stop Michael with a double-team on him; and it was shortly after that when the wheels fell off of the game plan bus for Grand Summit.

We were just into the fourth quarter by the, and Grand Summit had returned up the field again fairly quickly after Tim's touchdown, but had a couple of dropped passes deep in our red zone and found themselves facing their first fourth down of the game. Instead of kicking a chip-shot field goal and cut our lead to four; they went for it – and failed. We took over on downs; Jeff Morris hit Tim with a fifteen-yard pass on our first play that Tim then ran all the way to the end zone at the other end of the field for his fifth touchdown of the game; and we were suddenly up by fourteen instead. Grand Summit came roaring back to score another touchdown; and then Michael returned the favor while keeping up with Tim and earning his fifth touchdown of the game to – on another drive that took less than two minutes.

At that point, we were up seventy to fifty-six; time was running out; and Grand Summit was getting desperate. They blasted down the field; got stopped on another fourth-down incompletion; and then Jeff hit Tim for another long pass and run that Tim slowed up and ran out of bounds for – as per orders from Coach Robinson. Jeff took a knee for three downs to run the clock down as much as we could; and then Jason kicked his one and only field goal of the game to give us the seventy-three-fifty-six lead that we'd end the game with. Grand Summit still had a little time left after that, but we all knew the game was over by then despite the fact that they ran the ball down the field again until losing yet one more fourth down attempt in our red zone with just seconds left on the clock. There was one more offensive play for our team, with Jeff simply taking a knee to run out the clock; and then the celebration was on.

The game stats were so crazy that it was almost scary. We had over seven hundred yards of offense to go along with our ten touchdowns and one field goal; with more than six hundred of those yards through the passing game. Grand Summit had more than half again more of the clock time on offense, and five hundred plus yards of offense; their stats would have looked great too if it wasn't compared to our results today. I know that their players, coaches, and fans were really disappointed; but they did play a great game where the major difference between winning and losing really game down to a couple of pivotal plays in the fourth quarter.

In a Championship tournament like this one, big celebrations after the game aren't an option because the field needs to be cleared for the next game fairly quickly. Rowen and I got to have a little bit of time with Michael and Tim after the game; but then we were all off and running again to hit the showers and get our gear packed up and into the bus or vehicles before we went back into the stadium; met up with our families and friends; and started watching the next game already in progress. Most of our fans didn't stay for all of that game because they wanted to be home in time for dinner; but Michael and I did get to spend some time with Dad, Ethan, Aiden, and my uncles and cousins before they left for home.

We stayed and watched that second game, and then went over to our hotel. The check-ins for the team and cheerleaders was already taken care of by then, so Rowen and I got our keycards and went straight to our room to get changed and ready for the evening events that were hosted by the high school football league – though our school pays its share of those costs the same as every school does – or however that's actually done through the combination of school taxes and sports fees. We met up with Michael and Tim in the lobby, because they were ready first – as were most of the guys; and then we were off and running again.

It was very different from last year to be part of the football festivities instead of being on our own for dinner and the evening; but we had a great night; and I especially loved getting to spend that time with my friends. Michael and I got to sit with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Lance at one table; and our group had a block of tables, so we had other friends we could talk with too; though not with everyone because we were one of the tables on the outside edge of the room. I'm definitely getting spoiled having so many meals cooked by Michael's father; but I doubt that anyone in the room would actually argue with me about how mediocre the meal was tonight. It wasn't bad; just not at all memorable.

Fortunately, the dinner conversation was fun; and I really loved getting to celebrate a championship with Michael, Tim, and Lucas. Jenny was happy too because Lance had come along to spend the day – and night – with her; but he felt a bit out of place being the only non-footballer guy there with us. Rebecca was officially at the game and evening events in her capacity as reporter for the school newsletter and yearbook, so while she had fun with us too; she also needed to take pictures and videos for her 'job' too. She also recorded the entire game plays; but that was entirely so that Jacob and Miranda could watch the game later to see just how great their son played today. She's also sharing a room with Emma Norton tonight; so she's earning some bonus points there with her boyfriend's sister too.

For the guys, the obvious highlight of the night was getting their Championship trophy, though Coach Robinson received that at the podium on his own while the guys were only asked to stand and accept the congratulations. Jeff Morris earned the Most Valuable Player honors for our game; thanks to his ten touchdown passes and having more than six hundred passing yards. I think that he deserves the award, but Michael and Tim deserved more attention than they got too – especially since more than five hundred of those 'passing' yards came after the catch – and Michael and Tim split that fairly evenly between them. A running back with five touchdowns and two hundred and fifty yards on the ground would have made a much bigger impression. Michael and Tim don't have to get those yards by running through the defensive line first; but they have their own challenges too.

Moving along, some people in our own group seemed surprised at Jeff's award, but they shouldn't have been – he's quiet; but goes out and gets the job done. One guy actually seemed to be put-out by Jeff's selection; and there's a good chance that Jason Johnson actually believes that he was an equal star today with thirteen points on eleven kicks to go along with the rest of his stellar season. I haven't really paid attention to the in-school awards for any sports, let alone for football, and I'm sure he'll win some this year; but I don't see how he can argue with the league judges' pick for the MVP of our game today. I don't, and think there's a case to be made for Michael and Tim sharing the title with Jeff – a fact that he pointed out modestly in his acceptance comments. Maybe that's why Jason looked upset – for not being singled out by Jeff too instead of being lumped in with the rest of the 'team effort' part of Jeff's remarks.

There was a social time after the awards were presented, but no dance or major party action. Going out after that was an option for the older teens, but the rest of us came back to the hotel to either hang out in our rooms or go for a swim in the pool. Michael and I were with all of our friends for that, and we also had other teens that hadn't been able to go to the dinner with us too – including Emma and Benjamin Norton, and Sally, and Joshua. We swam for nearly an hour; and then headed for bed – mostly.

Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I might have gotten mixed up with our room destinations for a little while before getting that straightened out again; but we weren't the only couples doing that – and there were more than a few senior teen couples who didn't get into the correct rooms before dawn. For us, it was enough to have an hour or so of quality, clothing-optional make-out time. Michael helped me out of my wet swimsuit, and while his dried above the tub in the bathroom, we played on the bed and then he eventually helped me to get dressed again – this time in a night dress that he really wanted to get me out of again about five seconds after I was in it. We didn't do that, but we did play right up until it was time for Rowen to get back to our room. We'd opted for that so that Michael didn't have to worry about walking into his room and seeing anything he shouldn't, but Rowen waited an extra five minutes; and I'll guess that was for the same reason – especially since Tim walked her back to our room.

Did I mention that I was in a night dress by then? A short, fairly sexy one? ;^)

Tim's open-mouthed reaction had Michael both laughing and pretending to try and hide me from Tim, but while I'm not into public displays of nudity or anything; I just thought it was funny because I had less on when we were swimming in the pool. Rowen had less on right then – under the wrap she had on over her swimsuit – which had also apparently had time to dry while she was away. It was obvious from their smiles that they'd had fun too; but I won't include any details here about that.

I will note that we already knew by then that Jenny did not stay in her room with Tammy Morris tonight. Lance was on his own for room reservations, so he didn't have a roommate for them to worry about; and Jenny wasn't worried about getting caught – despite having several of her mother's teacher friends in the hotel and semi-supervising. As I already mentioned, they weren't the only couple doing that either – just the youngest. That's the extent of my comments about that, though; since I'm sure that Michael and I will be members of that group on future trips – even if we're not ready to go there quite yet despite the fact that we love getting to cuddle together all night. Our experience with that is, admittedly, limited; but we'll be happy to work on that as we go along!

Michael and Tim stayed for a chat and drink before Rowen and I took care of the goodnight hugs and kisses with our respective boyfriends; and then Rowen got changed, and we took turns using the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed. It was time for a nice long girl chat by then; and it's taken us more than an hour to do that while I've been busy with my nightly bedtime computing and Rowen's been surfing and watching YouTube videos. I didn't have a lot of actual family business work to do, but there were a lot of email; and news from home to talk about.

While we've been in football mode, we missed the buffet breakfast; an amazing Black Friday shopping adventure that included all of the other girls in my family getting to explore the new second-hand store on top of the other usual stops; and all of the rest of the fun that's been going on at home. I haven't mentioned it yet, but the weather was awesome today too – into the fifties by game time and sunny pretty much all day. That made for a great play day at home too. In addition to the shopping, there were big family lunch and dinner meals; play time at the park; and even a small canoe ride adventure. With quite a few of the guys away for the football game; there wasn't even much of that going on until after dinner; so the women actually got to relax in the afternoon and watch chick flicks – or just have naps.

Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark didn't come for the football outing because Aunt Leanne is having the ongoing issues with morning sickness and Aunt Grace is due any day now; so they also helped out with kid control after the shopping. Uncle Nick stayed home too, but nobody had expected him to go – man-laws are superseded when it comes to things like having newborns in the house – and he's smart enough not to risk earning the wrath of his wife, their mothers, or any of the other girls in his family. Give it a year or two, Uncle Nick, and then you and Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark will be wishing that man-laws didn't rule when you're taking your toddler sons on trips like this one – and spending five hours in the car with them just to watch football for a few hours.

Finally, on the email front, there were a handful of congratulations email that were more for passing on to Michael and Tim than for Rowen and me; but that was fun too.

It's time to wrap this up, and not only because Rowen and I need to get some sleep – I want to give her a bedtime birthday gift too – though Michael and I will do our main gift with her in the morning at breakfast.

Or I'll wrap this up right now because Rowen just saw that last comment as I wrote it and is now very excited about us putting our computers away so we can get to that.

I love you Rowen!

It's been fun, but I have to go now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Rowen – and Happy 1st Anniversary as a couple, Rowen and Tim!

You don't need two guesses to know which one of those milestones is most important to Rowen today; though the other one does get her more gifts! ;^)

We've had an amazing day, with nice weather with temperatures reaching well into the sixties this afternoon. Michael and I started out day with Tai Chi in the pool room followed by a quick swim before going back up to our rooms to get ready for a play day and pack up for check-out. Breakfast was at the same hotel restaurant we were at last year; with the big exception being that some of us were celebrating Rowen's birthday today when it was literally yesterday's news last year. Everyone else in our collective groups were celebrating the Championship win – just like we were doing last year; so that was awesome too. There was only one parent 'with' us for breakfast, and while he and Tracey had a gift to give Rowen at the dinner at the Inn tonight too; he had a little game souvenir for Rowen too – an autographed mini-helmet that he'd gotten Michael and Tim to autograph sometime for her. It was more of a gag gift; but she loved the thoughtfulness and quiet humor.

Tim, Michael, and I had gifts for her too; and so did Rebecca and Lucas, and Sally and Joshua. The cheerleaders had a group gift for her, but they did that later, at lunchtime, and since I was quietly asked for a donation to the cause by Dani; I know that was shopped for while we were at the Mall for the rest of the morning. The parents and chaperones had done some organizing overnight, and while a few people headed for home after breakfast, everyone else – including all of the teens and most of the kids – went to the Mall with us for the morning; and stayed for a semi-organized lunch and play time celebration at the sports entertainment center here.

We have our Christmas shopping trip coming up soon anyway, so Rowen and I didn't need to do any major shopping today; but we did have fun wandering around with the boys – and with Sally and Joshua too. Rebecca and Lucas went off with Jenny and Lance to do their own thing; but they mostly didn't hang out with us because we didn't want to be wandering the mall in one huge group. We bumped into other friends now and then, and had little cameo moments; and pretty much just played around for a couple of hours until we needed to meet up for lunch at the food court. That was entertaining too, and Dani and the other girls even tracked down a cupcake and candle so that Rowen could get a bonus birthday wish while getting about half of the people around and in the food court to sing the birthday song to Rowen. That had Rowen blushing and looking embarrassed; but she sort-of loved it too.

We were off to the sports entertainment center right after that, and while it hasn't changed at all since last year; we had just as much fun this time as we were there for Rowen's birthday on the Friday night. More fun, really; because we had a lot more of our friends along for the ride. That gave Rowen and me a bigger home town audience to wow with our daring trampoline skills; we won our little race against the boys for rock wall climbing; and Tim won this round of Laser Tag – just as he did last year. Throw in as many other games and activities as we could fit into the two and a half hours we had available to play there; and then it was time to hit the road for home.

That felt very strange after spending the rest of the day together, because the boys needed to head home on the bus with the team while Rowen and I were sent home with Tim's father this time – mostly because he offered so that Ana-Marie and Erica could do something else before heading back without needing to worry about having us home in time for Rowen's birthday dinner at the Inn. The trip was a bit quieter, but we enjoyed having a couple of hours of alone time with Martin too – something we don't get to do really at all. I think that I've done fairly amazing when it comes to the family of my boyfriend, but Rowen's aced out too; and Tim's parents are seriously awesome – even though they're the quiet couple in their family compared to Lee and Sarah.

When we got home, Rowen and I had extra time to get ready for dinner while Michael and Tim helped out at the school and her parents – and Tim's – finished up for the day at the store and dealership. The Saturday shopping wasn't quite as crazy as Black Friday; but there were still a lot of visitors in town today; and it was a gorgeous day to be outdoors and wandering around town – or playing at the park or on the river. Michael and I have missed everything that's been going on with our families yesterday and today, and for my family; that included a trail ride this afternoon for some of the parents and teens – though most of the guys were more interested in the college football games. We missed out on dinners with our families tonight too; though Michael's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins were at the Inn for dinner – just not with us; and they were nearly finished eating by the time we got there with Rowen's parents, Patrick, and Scott.

While they'd had a very busy couple of days, Miranda and Jacob still insisted that Michael and Rebecca take the night off so that they could both be there for Rowen's dinner party; and Lucas stayed in town for that too. Jenny didn't come to dinner; and was with Lance in Maple Valley tonight instead – apparently the compromise they'd made with his parents that allowed him to go to the game and stay there overnight on the holiday weekend. The rest of the teen guest list was fairly small because the rest of our friends all had family commitments too; but all of Rowen's family was there – both the home town gang and the weekend visitors that were staying at her house; but being hosted by her grandparents while Patricia and Owen were busy at the store.

The food seemed extra-special after the mediocre culinary experiences we had on our trip; but I won't say it was a best-of-the-weekend; because Jacob's Thanksgiving dinner was a tough act to follow; and the buffets tomorrow will be as amazing as always. What was awesome tonight was the friends and family time; Rowen's mini-roast; and seeing my best friend so happy. Whatever her birthday wishes were today; I don't see how having them granted could make her life any better than it is right now – though with Rowen; it's quite possible that her wishes are for someone else – or for her future. I wish that she gets to be this happy all of her life too!

Let's not get into the details of the gifts. She loved everything, and had a handful of them to open – including the one that I brought along from Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; but Rowen could have gotten nothing at all and she would have been just as happy.

Okay, mostly happy – we are still teens, after all; and getting gifts is fun – even if we love giving them even more.

Michael and I were the only other teens at the table with Rowen and Tim, but Rebecca, Lucas, and the others were at neighboring tables so that they could still talk with Rowen too. Though we were celebrating her birthday, it wasn't a surprise that the championship football game was the top news story here at home today; and everyone wanted to congratulate the guys – and hear all about the game. That helped out with the entertainment, and Rowen didn't mind sharing the spotlight; but I think that she was also ready to go home by the time we'd finished having dessert too – though that wasn't going to be a transition to some alone time with Tim.

Rowen wasn't the only teen in the room that needed to get home to family after leaving the Inn. I walked home with Michael after we spent ten minutes talking with his parents in the kitchen; stopped in for another cameo visit with his weekend guests; and then moved on to my house to spend a couple of hours with my own family before bedtime – or at least the Rice family contingent of it. The Proctors were with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace; Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne were spending the evening with his family guests; and Grandma and Grandpa were there this evening after spending most of the day at our house. Violet and Dillon were still there; but only for the first hour before they needed to get back to his house for their last night in Witch Falls before heading back to school tomorrow afternoon.

That was a whirlwind of inaction; and that's exactly what I mean. I mostly sat on a sofa with Mom and Dad; sipped on a hot chocolate, and had a blur of little cameo chats with everyone – including giving everyone a condensed version of the football game report from a cheerleader and girlfriend perspective while skipping over some of the details that Dad, Ethan, and the other guys had already passed on to everyone else. With an early-morning wake-up call a necessity for all of us to get ready for church and a busy day; a comparatively early bedtime was an option for some of us too – though that didn't include Chris, Martin, Dawn, or me.

After seeing the parents and grandparents off to bed, Dawn and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night while Chris and Martin moved on to the lounge for some gaming action. They're also watching the last college ball game of the day; but the other guys are, at the very least, bending man-laws to skip the rest of it in favor of the extra nap time.

Have you ever noticed that there always seems to be a way around man-laws when it's convenient for the guys; but that rarely happens when a man-law can get them out of doing something they don't want to do?

Let's not go there tonight. Dawn and I had a little visit with Chris and Martin in the lounge after we'd finished tucking the twins in for the night, but then we closed the doors between the lounge and my room so that we could get ready for bed and then just surf the net of my computer and have some girl chat time until Dawn fell asleep about a half-hour ago. I've been doing some nightly computing since then, and had one little family business email issue to deal with; but I'm about ready to get started on my nap time too.

Tomorrow really is going to be crazy-busy – especially since Michael and I need to be at church early to warm up with the teen praise team. I'll be back at the Inn for the noon buffet with my family; and then I'm booked to help out for the rest of the day there. Our guests will likely be leaving from the Inn as long as they get everything packed and loaded up in the morning; so I won't miss anything at home except for Mom and Dad working in the office. I wish that there'd been more time to spend with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend; but I guess that'll have to wait for when they're home for Christmas.

That's pretty much it for this update, and I am tired enough to sleep now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

How crazy has it been today? Crazy enough that I'm skipping out on the bedtime studying and work and opting to go to sleep early instead.

Tai Chi this morning was the only quiet time I had today from the time it ended until right now as I'm cuddling here in bed with Mandy and writing this before crashing into nap mode for the rest of the night. After that, it was a rush to get ready for church, have a snack breakfast on the fly, and then run out the door to meet up with Michael again to get to the church for our praise team warm-up. Having that to do meant missing out on most of the work around the house, but while I was busy; Mom and Dad helped out with feeding the troops; getting luggage packed into vehicles; and making sure that everyone was ready for – and at – church on time.

Our service today was a combination Thanksgiving and Christmas theme because it is also Advent Sunday today; and our music, skits, bible readings, and Pastor John's message covered both. That also made for an extra-long service; so Michael and Rebecca needed to run right after it ended to get to the Inn and help out with the first buffet. I didn't do that because there was work that needed to be done by the teens after the service too; and then I went home to get changed before going on to the Inn with the rest of my family for the first buffet sitting at noon.

That was another mad dash of action, and even having our early dinner felt like a rush because some of us wanted to help Miranda and Jacob with keeping the busy buffet day moving along and not drag out our meal; and all of our guests wanted to hit the road as early as possible to get home or back to college – while hopefully beating at least some of the holiday weekend traffic rush. I didn't get to have dinner with any of my cousins, because they were all busy with their own families ahead of the imminent separations; but Ethan, Ehlana, and I did get to spend that hour and a half with Grandma and Grandpa instead. That worked for me, since I've been busy for the rest of the day; and missed out on the afternoon grandkids and grandparents time that gave the parents a break to either nap or work in the office.

You probably don't need to guess which set of parents were in the office doing the work; though let's cut Aunt Leanne some slack on that this time – she has a good reason for being tired out right now! ;^)

Doing the goodbye hugs and kisses with my family outside of the Inn didn't take long – mostly because the warm we've had for the past two days came to an abrupt end this morning; and we're back to the freezing, winter-like cold. That was a mad dash of action too; and I did not have enough time to spend with Violet, Dillon, Christina, Josiah, or any of the others before they were all on the road and heading out of town. The good news is that I didn't have time to miss them because I went back into the Inn after my home town family left for various houses; and jumped right into the work in the kitchen. Rebecca was happy to have the help by then, and while Michael was working with the guys dealing with the never-ending stacks of dirty dishes; Rebecca and I were mostly on the prep-line doing our usual jobs to help keep the buffet tables loaded with fresh food – for the next half-dozen hours.

Yes, we did have breaks, but Michael, Rebecca, and I all had school work to do too; so that's what we did when we weren't on the front line of the holiday weekend buffet battle. The work continued after the last containers of food went out to the dining room; and the clean-up seemed to take forever tonight as Rebecca and I moved on to help with all of the dishwashing and cleaning the kitchen while some of the teen girls helping with the cooking were moved out to the dining room to help Miranda and the other servers with the major clean-up there too. It was ten-thirty by the time we walked home, and if I'd gone inside with Michael and his family; he and I would have been doing another sofa sleepover for sure.

We all wanted to have showers, though, so I did the hugs and kisses out at the edge of their front yard; came home from there; and spent about two minutes with Mom and Dad before coming up here to hit the shower and then get ready for bed. Ethan and Ehlana were sleeping by then; Mom and Dad are in their room now after wrapping up their work for the night; and Mandy is already sleeping. I've mostly just done the email check and dealt with one little family business issue that couldn't want for tomorrow night; and the main news from the email is that everyone got home or back to school safely – including Jake and Stephanie. They apparently didn't do anything at all over the past four days except study for final exams, work on assignments, and go out for a few meals here and there; but Stephanie's email still sounded very upbeat, so I guess they weren't too bored.

I'm sure that it's just a coincidence that her email read a lot like the redacted stories we get from parents, aunts and uncles for their weekends away without kids stories.

Let's not go there, or I'll just stay awake wishing that I did go home with Michael and stay for that sofa sleepover.

We're going to have a very busy first week of December; which sounds funny when we're also now done with football and cheerleading for the year and will have five fewer activities going on each week. The Christmas calendar is full too, though; and we are not going to be bored! Rebecca's fifteenth birthday is up first for us on Tuesday, but the Mom's shopping trip is on Tuesday too. There's a surprise coming for Rebecca with that, but I'll save that news for the journal update on Tuesday. The band is playing in the Pinehurst Christmas parade on Friday night; Dawn's thirteenth birthday is on Saturday; and we'll see her again too because she'll be meeting up with us in Crystal Springs for the annual 'kids' Christmas shopping trip. Add in our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm on Sunday; and the week is looking very full – and I'm not even including Aunt Grace's imminent baby arrival. That could be happening any minute now; and definitely will be sometime this week – though Ethan, Ehlana, and I don't have the info for the exact timing.

It's going to be December very soon, but I don't plan on being awake to see either the end of November or the start of the new month; so that's it for tonight, and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!
December 2014

Monday, December 1, 2014

Happy 33rd Birthday, Mr. Seager!

Other than anonymously leaving a gift on his desk and going in on the joint gift that Ethan and Ehlana got for him, I didn't have any involvement in his big day; but Mom, Dad, and the twins went to his birthday dinner tonight while I was busy at Michael's house. I could have gone along too, but had to make one of those choices that seem to be happening regularly these days.

It's a little funny that we're done football and cheerleading now; yet Michael and I were at least as busy as always – if not busier. I should probably try to keep this update in order, though; so let's start with the news from this morning.

It was cold outside! Mother Nature must have a really good sense of humor to dangle temperatures in the sixties in front of our eyes on the Thanksgiving weekend and then plunge us into the freeze again in time for the start of December. Tai Chi was indoors, which is no surprise; but good morning hugs and kisses with Michael are not quite as much fun when his hands and face are cold from the walk over to our house. There is one good thing about being indoors again for Tai Chi, though; and that's mostly something that makes Ethan and Ehlana happy – getting to practice whatever forms they want to instead of playing at being normal three-year olds. Michael can do a bit more too; but nobody really notices anything out of the ordinary if he does the same forms as Mom, Dad, and I do when we're outdoors – even though it would actually take years longer for him to learn everything he knows now.

At school, the top news was obviously the football championship that our team brought home with them on the weekend, and that was fun too, but if I'm being honest; my favorite news of the day was that the guys stopped wearing orange today. I haven't mentioned the ongoing fashion craze in my journal since it began back in October, but orange has continued to be a glaring presence at the school through to Thanksgiving; so it was almost shocking for that to be absent from the scenery today. The Thanksgiving decorations are gone now too; and Christmas is beginning to appear – though it'll take most of the week before everything is decorated – except for the boards and displays that will fill up with crafts and pictures over the next few weeks.

Getting back to the football for a minute, some of the guys really enjoyed the attention today, but Michael was with Jeff Morris, Caleb, and some of the other guys who kept their celebration low-key and accepted the congratulations and comments with quiet, modest gratitude. Tim was more fired up, but then he's living up to a family legacy – and has the distinction of pulling that off as a high school freshman. Lee and Kyle can't lay claim to doing that, and while Kyle personally had a good freshman season with his college team; they're done for the season now and won't be playing in any championships or bowl games this year. Before moving on, the college football weekend was big news with the guys today too, but there weren't really a lot of major upsets to chat about; so it didn't really take long for them to re-hash that part of the sports report.

While Michael was one of the school football heroes today, he and I were quickly being immersed into Christmas mode too. We've been recruited again to help out with the music for the younger kids at the Christmas pageant; and booked for another duet too. Getting out of a class or two every day between now and then will be fun for us; but it's also more work to learn another batch of songs and do the practices with the kids. Adding that into the music mix with the upcoming band parades and concerts and the teen praise team Christmas events; and I'd say that we won't need to worry about what we'll do to fill up the free time we were supposed to have after football season!

Not having practices after school meant that we could do our homework after classes; so Tim, Rowen, and I went home with Michael to do that at his house. I loved getting to do that, and in addition to our homework from today; we did a music practice to get ready for class tomorrow; and even picked out the duet that Michael and I are going to do – thanks to some internet searching and YouTube video watching. We're going to sing 'It Could Happen Again' by Collin Raye; and we picked it because it's the one-hundredth anniversary of the 1914, World War One Christmas Truce that the song commemorates. What's going to be even better about our duet this year, though, is that Tim's going to do the narration at the beginning of the song; and Rowen's going to make up a flute accompaniment to go along with the guitar and keyboard arrangement that Michael and I have already started working on.

Rowen and Tim went home to his house for dinner, and I stayed with Michael. I haven't mentioned Rebecca yet, because she was at her basketball practice until shortly before dinner was ready; so she didn't get to do her homework while we were doing ours. We exchanged school day reports during dinner, and then Michael and I took care of the clean-up after we ate so that his parents could relax and Rebecca could get started on her work. We moved on to his room after that to do our music practices for the new duet; band; and the teen praise team. In order of priority, the band practice was most important, since we have the Pinehurst parade coming up on Friday night; but the duets were more fun – and that is duets – including the music we're doing at church this Christmas.

We only had time for a very minor make-out session after our practice time; so we didn't get teased about that too much while having a chat with Miranda and Jacob for a half-hour or so before I needed to get home for the night. That was a fun way to end my evening with Michael and his family; but then it was back to normal school night work and studies once I was home again.

My Magi lesson was first on the list; and Mom did that with me while Ethan and Ehlana did some college work. That took an hour; there was another half-hour and change of chat time so that we could exchange after-school and dinner stories; and then I helped out with getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night before coming up to my room for the night. It's been all work and studying since then – and that was more than three and a half hours ago.

That's made for a long, busy night for me, but I'm not the only member of our families keeping busy. Our favorite collegians are all getting ready for final exams this week; and I even had a computer chat with Violet and Stephanie while they stayed up late and worked on assignments and exam preparation. I didn't have a chat with them, but Grandma did send an email to let me know that she and Grandpa had gotten back to their condo in Arizona safely. I'd know that through our link; but it was nice to get their travel report – even if Grandpa finds it funny to tease us by sending pictures along of him or Grandma wearing tees, shorts, or swimsuits while we're stuck wearing winter coats, hats, and gloves to go outside here at home.

Does it mean that I'm getting old if we're just at the start of winter; and I'm wishing for a winter vacation down south already?

I probably shouldn't go there; and start wrapping this up so that I can get started on my nap. We're going to have another busy day tomorrow – and a late night too; but you'll have to flip the digital page in my future to find out why; since that's part of the surprise Miranda and Jacob have set up for Rebecca's birthday.

Tomorrow is also the Mom's Christmas shopping trip, and while I'm not involved in that; I should mention that Mom was busy with that today – as if she didn't have enough of the go with work at the lab; Ethan and Ehlana; and Mr. Seager's birthday dinner. The final number for the shopping group tomorrow is forty-eight women and they'll be taking twelve vehicles – mostly to have the space for their purchases. Mom and Aunt Leanne are both driving; but Aunt Leanne has a back-up driver if she's feeling barfy and needs the help. If you think organizing that is scary for Mom; wait until you find out how many kids, teens, and adults will be going on the kids' Christmas shopping trip on Saturday!

Maybe I should be scared, since I'll be a junior kid-control helper this year, but since Michael and I will be doing that with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; I'm okay with having a shopping play day with them – and with Rowen, Tim, and the rest of our group. We still have a lot of week to get through between now and then, though; so let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

That's pretty much all of the news for today, but since Michael and I have been really getting into the Christmas music swing of things both at school and home; I thought it would be nice to add a little bit of contemporary Christmas music to my journal between now and Christmas. Maybe some of them will even still be favorites whenever you're reading this in my future, but if they aren't; that should just make these little clips of Christmas history more interesting for you. While we're not going to be using this song for any of our concerts or services at church this year, we ran across it during our YouTube search and really loved it; so it's my first pick for my 'twenty-five favorite Christmas videos of 2014'.

Mary, Did You Know? - Pentatonix

That's it for tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Congratulations, Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark – it's a boy!

You may have only been half-joking about going on the Moms' Christmas shopping trip to help speed up the baby arrival, Aunt Grace; but it's obvious now that you didn't need to do that – and it's probably a good thing that you didn't try to spend three hours in the car and a full day on your feet walking malls and toy stores!

Caleb Adam Everett was born at eleven-fifteen – a few hours ago; and weighed in at eight pounds, two ounces. There isn't much hair on his head to go by, but the consensus is that he'll have blonde hair; and that could mean he'll inherit the Proctor family blue eyes too. He's in perfect health – and so is Aunt Grace; thanks to a little Magi-powered help from her co-doctor tonight. I'm sure that was as much fun for her as it was for Uncle Adam; and a seriously cool bonus to go along with being brought into the loop about her special family and newborn son. Having your cousin's husband help deliver your baby was probably a bit weird, but I'm sure that Aunt Grace got over that about a second after she was completely healed too.

I wasn't there for Caleb's birth because I was in Crystal Springs tonight instead; having fun doing what I'd expected would be the top story of the day for this update.

Happy 15th Birthday, Rebecca!

Caleb's definitely in good company for sharing his big day, and while they aren't related; Rebecca thought that it was cool to end her special day with the news that we have a new addition to the town – and my family.

The rest of Rebecca's day has been amazing too – starting with going to the breakfast buffet at the Inn with all of the women who were going on the shopping trip today. She had some friends along for that too – like Rowen, Jenny, and me; and Dad brought Ethan and Ehlana along to spend that time with Mom before she headed out of town. Quite a few of the men in town did that with their kids; so Jacob had a busy morning at the Inn – though he was working one of his days off to help out with the extra business both during breakfast and at lunch.

We ended up just skipping Tai Chi this morning. Michael went to the Inn early to help his father and the rest of the crew before joining us for breakfast; and Mom was busy getting ready for her shopping day. She made up for that with all of the mall walking, but I should probably do an extra round of forms tomorrow – especially after that major breakfast and our dinner in Crystal Springs.

Just kidding – I'm just channeling Aunt Grace for the fun of it; and my hyper-metabolism will deal with the bonus food by morning. Speaking of jokes, I guess that Aunt Grace will have to come up with new comedy lines now that she won't be able to use the pregnancy jokes anymore. She was as self-conscious about that as Mom was with the twins; but had some fun with it too – like during her last visit 'home' when she took Olde Bakery treats to her trainer-friend in Granite Park and had fun complaining to her about how fat she'd gotten since moving to Witch Falls and marrying Uncle Mark.

Moving along, but not really; the next pregnancy news comes from Aunt Leanne; and she was actually having a good morning today. Maybe it was the day out with the girls that had her fired up and ready to play, or some other reason; but the bottom line for her was that there wasn't any major morning sickness to deal with; and she even seemed fairly lively when I saw her at the clinic tonight – though she was ready to let Mom and Dad drop her off at home after I'd had a chance to see Caleb for a few minutes.

In case you're wondering, Zack's spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa Carrington – and they took custody of him as soon as Uncle Adam was called in to the clinic for Aunt Grace shortly after dinner.

Getting back to Rebecca's birthday news, she's had a fairly exciting day. There were gifts to open while at the breakfast buffet, including one from Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; she had a very entertaining day at school that included a lunchtime birthday party with classmates, team mates, and friends in the cafeteria; and topped off the school day fun by getting her learner's permit this afternoon and joining the ranks of junior drivers.

There are a lot of advantages to small-town life, and one of them is being able to get help whenever you want it. In this case, I'm referring to Jacob recruiting help for Rebecca's birthday surprise. It wasn't until after school that she found out that there was a surprise birthday trip happening for her – and she found that out from her basketball coach when she was told that she couldn't stay for practice because she needed to get home and ready for her birthday dinner. I wasn't in on that part of the surprise, but I did skip band practice to go home and get ready for a night out too – and I did know what the surprise was going to be.

Jacob only had room for five in their minivan, so Rebecca only had Lucas, Jenny, Michael, and me with her for the trip to the city celebration; but she was good with that plan. Jenny was a bit disappointed that there wasn't time to have Lance join us from Maple Valley, but I'm not sure if he'd have actually been interested in doing this with us and having all of that extra drive time back and forth to his home on top of that on a school night. That did make for a bit of weirdness tonight; but I'll get to that in a minute. While he was on his own, parentally-speaking, for the trip to Crystal Springs; Jacob did have support for the rest of the evening from Miranda and the other women in her return travel group. They'd done a shuffle for that; so Rebecca had her Bassett grandmother and aunts along for the party; and Lucas' mom stayed for the dinner and a movie night too – though I'm sure that wasn't to chaperone her son for the night.

More likely, she wanted to help celebrate her future daughter-in-law's birthday. ;^)

I'm not suggesting that she's booked the church or talked with Miranda about having the reception at the Inn yet; but Claire does really love Rebecca; so Lucas should seriously think about keeping her.

The trip to the city seemed quick and entertaining; and we met up with the rest of our birthday dinner guests at the surf and turf restaurant that Miranda had picked out. Jacob, Lucas, and Michael were outnumbered tonight, but they still had fun too as we enjoyed a decent meal; kept ourselves entertained with everything from a minor roast of the birthday girl to sharing shopping, school, and work recaps. Rebecca opened gifts; had a birthday cake; and was mildly embarrassed when we sang the birthday song for her and had quite a few nearby diners and servers join in for that.

We had a bit of a time limit for dinner because we didn't want to end up going to the latest showing of the movie we went to see; so Jacob and Miranda had us on the move again with a half-hour to spare so we'd have time to drive to the theater and pick up drinks and snacks. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up online, and just advise you that the number one teen girls' movie choice in theaters this week is 'The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part One'. If you're a fan of the series, then you loved it – or didn't. While that is totally ambiguous, it's the way it is; and I won't add my two cents' worth of opinion on the film and risk offending either camp. Rebecca had an awesome night, though; and that's all that is really important to me.

As I mentioned, we were in-transit by the time that Caleb was born, and Mom let us know via text message when we were about half-way back so that I could be dropped off at the clinic on the way home. Miranda was with us for the return trip; mostly because Jenny decided that hanging out with the women in the other minivan would be more fun that being the fifth wheel with Rebecca, Lucas, Michael, and me while we enjoyed a little cuddle time with our respective boyfriend or girlfriend. I can't say anything about that; since I probably would have done the same thing – and would have had fun chatting with Michael's Aunt Sylvia.

My involvement in Rebecca's birthday adventure ended with being dropped off at the clinic, and my goodnight hug and kiss with Michael was very short – unless you include the kisses we shared here and there while on the way home from the city. He was ready for some nap time by then anyway, though; and I was looking forward to meeting my new cousin. That was an amazing, if short, family time moment, and the only thing that felt a bit strange was having so few people at the clinic for that.

Uncle Mark's family is in Seattle; Aunt Grace's parents, brother, and his family just went home to Granite Park; and my grandparents are in Arizona. That just left seven of us there to help with celebrating Caleb's birth with his proud parents; and made for a much more intimate scene. Aunt Grace's labor was fairly short, but she was also exhausted by then too, so Uncle Adam pretty much kicked us out of the clinic after I'd gotten to cuddle with Caleb for a while. Aunt Leanne had complained about it when she was included in that eviction; but wasn't really upset about being sent home to bed. Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark were going to take turns helping Aunt Grace with Caleb, and though she was well-enough already by then to go home; she needed to stay there to keep up appearances.

That's going to make for a very long day for Uncle Adam, since he'll be running the clinic on his own tomorrow – and for the rest of the week too; but I'm fairly sure that this was one of his favorite baby deliveries so far too. Let's not forget that he also got to help his best friend with delivering his first child into the world in addition to being there for Aunt Leanne's favorite cousin and friend. I'd put that one right up there with helping to deliver a baby brother and sister! ;^)

I'd like to report that my day was done then, but the bedtime studying and family business work was still ahead of me after getting home and helping out with getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night. Mom skipped my Magi lesson; but it was already heading toward one-thirty by then; and she was ready to crash after a day of shopping and three hours of driving to go along with the baby delivery – though she and Dad only helped out with the wards and shields tonight. Even without the archive assignment tonight, it's still taken me until past-four to get my language studies and work done; and I could just keep going all night if it wasn't for the fact that I'm seriously past-ready for some nap time.

Hopefully and early bedtime will be an option tomorrow; but that might depend on how much help Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark need once she's home from the clinic. While I might not be directly involved in that; babysitting could be needed for Ethan, Ehlana, and my cousins. We know that Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan will be here sometime tomorrow; but Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison haven't decided what they're going to do yet. They might end up waiting to meet Caleb until Christmas instead of doing another flying trip with three kids for a weekend. I have no idea what Uncle Mark's family will do. With all of those doctors in the family; getting away on short notice just isn't an option for them. Grandma and Grandpa are going to stay in Arizona; though they did think about doing another trip – or just coming home early.

Michael and I would be happy to trade places with them for a week or two if they change their minds about that; but the parents would probably have an issue with us staying at their condo on our own. Oh well, maybe next year!

There isn't anything newsworthy to report from my work, and the only news from my language studies is that I'm close to being ready to call the current one learned and then I'll take a break until starting the next one in January. Some of you probably think that's too much, but there are reasons for why I need to learn all of these languages, and even for a Magi Master; that takes years of study to accomplish – especially when you're only doing that for an hour or two a day. There are a lot of human languages in the world; so I'll be continuing that part of my education for a long time – just as I'll do the same for my Magi gifts.

Okay, that's it for now; with just one thing left to take care of before wrapping this up.

While I'm thinking about new babies tonight, let's go with this song for our second installment of Christmas music for your future journal reading enjoyment!

A Strange Way to Save the World – Rascal Flatts

Merry Christmas; and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The top news story in town today was the arrival of my new cousin, since most of our friends and neighbors didn't find out about it until this morning. Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark took Caleb home this afternoon – not long after Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy arrived. They're staying through until Sunday; but may spend part of that time with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne if Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark don't need the overnight help with Caleb. They're just going to wing that.

Meals, on the other hand, are being planned out – as are the visits for family and friends. I was not on the visitors list today, since I did get to see Caleb last night; but I did help out with some kid control while Mom was busy delivering her contribution for dinner at the Everett's house. Olde Bakery treats were dropped off too – as were flowers, fruit baskets, and other gifts. I don't write about stuff like that in my journal very much, and didn't even mention it last week for Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick; but our neighbors and friends take care of each other at times like this – or during tougher moments in life. Aunt Grace won't need quite as much help as Mom did with twins; but she will have all the help she needs with Caleb for as long as she needs it.

That just gave me an idea for one of the things we're working on for the local future plans. I'll run that past Mom – and Aunt Grace – in the New Year and see what they think about it. There are going to be a lot of young people working at the lab and med center; and we can help them, our business, and the owners of KidZone all in one neat little deal. I'll keep you posted if that works out.

Anyway, getting on with my own update, Tai Chi was indoors this morning; Michael stayed for breakfast; and then we split up to get ready for school. With Uncle Mark off for a few days, Uncle Adam wasn't working at the lab; but Mom needed to be there while Aunt Grace and Uncle Adam were both busy – though she was only there until early afternoon. That did give Ethan and Ehlana a chance to play there too, though; so they were happy campers.

Michael and I are definitely getting into the Christmas spirit at school this week; and we had two music practices today. We're doing the group music for each of the K-to-6 grades; and the younger kids are especially entertaining as they struggle to learn 'their' song, medley, or musical skit. We also had our duet choice enthusiastically approved today too; so all that's left for that is the practice time with Rowen and Tim. We actually had some classes and school work today too; but there wasn't anything particularly newsworthy going on there – and we didn't even get a lot of homework tonight.

Rebecca and the rest of the girls' basketball team had an away game today, so they got to leave early for that after-school game; but Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I are all back to our normal mid-week work night routine now. I would have needed to be home anyway, since I was watching Ethan and Ehlana after school too; but that wasn't exactly a problem. They stayed in the office and worked on college assignments – including getting ready for their final exams. They'll be writing them before the Christmas break. Compared to that, my Grade Nine homework was trivial, but then that also, literally, took seconds to get done because we used more than a little Magi power to help with getting more work done – including some time-phasing.

Mom and Dad got in on that too after dinner; and we all had our work done by nine o'clock. Not everyone was ready for bed by then, but I was tired out, so I had a quick shower; got ready for bed; and I'm now warm and comfortable while snuggling with Mandy and wrapping up my day with my usual bedtime computer checks and this update. I guess the only news I have from those checks is that Rebecca and her team won their game. Carolyn has high hopes for every sport she plays, but in this case; a healthy dose of reality is required when it comes to our school and basketball. To be blunt, we're collectively too short compared to the girls – or guys – at other schools in even the small-school divisions. We do have some tall guys, but they're also almost all built for football or farm work – not court sports. Yes, we'll get some wins now and then; but I don't think we're at any imminent risk of winning basketball championships here.

If, in the future when you read this, you're thinking that those comments are pessimistic; they're not. I am being realistic, though. Carolyn is an amazing athlete, but she isn't a miracle worker; and can't make her team mates taller.

Anyway, moving this along; I'm ready for the extra down time tonight – especially since we're going to have a very busy weekend with the parade on Friday night; the Christmas shopping trip on Saturday; and the Christmas tree farm adventure on Sunday afternoon. Add in game night tomorrow night before I can get started on my studies and work; and I don't expect to get much more than a nap in each night between now and next Wednesday.

My Christmas song video choice for tonight is on my holiday play list every year since I started making one; and you probably don't need to take a second guess about why I especially love the song now – or why it's one of our favorites to sing together. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

The Gift – Jim Brickman, Susan Ashton, Collin Raye

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

We've had another busy day, and as expected; I've been up late getting my work done after a play evening at the Inn.

For the second day in a row, the busy has also meant not spending any time with Aunt Grace, Uncle Mark, and Caleb; but they're busy too – and still had lots of first-time visitors stopping in to meet the new baby.

While they were busy with that, I had another busy day at school; with more music practice time and other holiday fun. There was a test thrown into the mix, and we had fun at lunchtime too; so we managed to keep ourselves entertained. One teen news story that is making the rounds this week is actually something that started out on the Thanksgiving weekend; but is still developing – a new romance between Lily Ayres in our class and Reid Spencer. He's in Grade Eight, and that's certainly gotten the attention of the younger teens and tweens at school; though not always in a good way for Lily.

I wish that kind of thing didn't happen, and it really isn't that common here; but we're not completely exempt from stupid teen rumors here. The really dumb thing about un-flattering comments about Lily is that she doesn't deserve them; and the truth is practically opposite of some of the whispered comments I've hear around here this week. Lily's had a few boyfriends now, but to be blunt; those dating experiences haven't worked out because she isn't ready to go where some of the guys our age want to take their relationships. Dating Reid could be a good match for her, so I hope they ignore the peer drama; and just have fun together.

Moving along, our after-school fun started out with a study session at my house so that we could also again keep an eye on Ethan and Ehlana while Mom was busy. That might sound boring, but it wasn't. The assignments part of our work didn't take long; and then we spent the rest of that time practicing music. For Michael, Rowen, and me; that started out with a run-through of our band music for the parade tomorrow night. It's raining now as I write this, and it might still be coming down by parade time, so while Tim was wishing that he was coming along to spend time with Rowen; he's not upset about missing out on the potential getting rained on thing – or playing in the band with us. We also practiced our song for the Christmas pageant, and though we still have some work to do on that; our audience of two thought that we did a great job.

Michael and I needed to get to the Inn to help out with dinner after that; so we were on the run again – and so were Rowen and Tim. They had other plans for the evening that didn't include going to game night with us, and while we had fun at the Inn; I also have no doubt that they had more fun – especially when they got around to having some alone time.

I wonder if Michael and I could get away with skipping some game nights in favor of a little make-out time at home? Probably not.

Anyway, we did have fun – both while helping out in the kitchen with Rebecca; and while playing the games with our friends and family. Michael and I even won the junior championship this week, though it was a fairly quiet night at the Inn; so we had a fairly small group of competitors. One thing that added some fun to the mix was having Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy there to play with us. That gave them a chance to visit with some old friends; and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace got to have a couple of hours on their own with Caleb.

My real study and work time didn't start until after we got home; and that wasn't until we'd all stayed to help with the post-gaming clean-up – and the goodnight hug and kiss I shared with Michael in front of his house on the way home. Ethan and Ehlana had some college work they wanted to do then too, so Mom did my Magi lesson with me first before we tucked them into bed for the night. I came up to my room after that while Mom went back downstairs to do more work in the office with Dad; and I started out my studying with some Jacuzzi time multi-tasking. As always, it's funny that my family business work is almost always on projects that are for one or two seasons ahead of 'now' – or looking even further into the future; and that's always more noticeable around holidays. It was all about Christmas music at and after school today; yet tonight I worded on everything from Valentine's Day and Easter projects and plans to summer camps and fashion.

That's a topic I've covered often enough in this journal, though, and I'm tired and ready for some nap time; so let's leave that line of thought right there and call it a night.

You've probably guessed by now that Michael and I especially love Christmas songs with cool harmonies. My Christmas music video pick for tonight is one of my favorite versions ever-so-far of Deck the Halls. I hope you like it too!

Deck The Halls - SHeDAISY

And on those harmonic notes; until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, December 5, 2014

It was still raining when I woke up from my nap this morning, so Tai chi was indoors; and we got a bit damp on the walk to school. The good news for the weather, though, was that the rain mostly ended by parade time; so we didn't get soaked while playing with the band tonight – and everyone in Pinehurst had a lot more fun – even if everything was still fairly wet. That included all of the trailers and floats, but our group only had one minor slip and fall with no injuries, and other than one minor medical emergency; we didn't hear about any other issues for anyone else in the parade.

There isn't any news to report from school today, and while we didn't need to leave immediately after school for Pinehurst; we really only had time for quick changes at home before some of us were back at the school to help out with loading the bus with instruments, music stands, and the rest of the gear we needed tonight. That little intermission was while 'our' bus and driver were busy running one of the after-school country routes, and though we were able to work ahead; we didn't take anything outside until the bus was there because it had still been raining lightly at the time.

Michael is used to doing bus rides with the football team, but he assured me that it was a lot more fun getting to do that with me tonight – especially for the trip home when it was dark; and cuddling was a fun option for all of the couples in the band. Rowen was wishing that Tim had joined too, but we really only have the two band trips all year; so it isn't a huge deal. We really should do more considering how much work goes into our practices, but that's like a lot of other things that we'd like to do – someone has to be willing to put in the extra work to make that happen.

Just as Mom and Aunt Leanne have been doing for the big shopping trips – like the one we'll be going on in the morning. That doesn't even go into the cost of band trips – even if that's just to local parades and concerts; but let's save that kind of chat for another time.

What was great about tonight was that it was a comfortable night for the parade – or at least it was slightly above freezing and comparatively easy to stay warm while playing – or for watching the parade. There was a big turnout, and while our music had people singing along and having fun; we also had regular intervals of booing from some of the football fans again this year. Michael and the other football guys in the band mostly had fun with that, and the Pinehurst players and fans shouldn't be that upset – after all; they did get that loss against the two-time champions. Then again, that probably doesn't help when you're used to being at the top of the division; and then haven't been for a few years in a row.

I'll guess that Michael will be okay with annually being booed at the Pinehurst parade if that means winning more football championships.

This update is a bit disjointed, so let's back up a bit. The bus ride to Pinehurst was entertaining, and everyone was fired up about our first 'performance' of the year. When we got to town, we needed to set up on our trailer first; but then we had time to get something to eat and have cups of hot chocolate or other beverages before doing our warm-ups shortly before the parade started. This year, we had an early spot in the parade column, and I loved that because we didn't need to sit around and wait to leave the staging area; and we also got to watch most of the parade at the other end once we'd packed the bus again. That was another chance to have hot drinks and snacks; and then we were on the road for home within ten minutes of the end of the parade – once we'd seen Santa Claus.

Some of us knew that he wasn't the 'real' Santa, because we couldn't sense his Magi aura; but Pinehurst does have a pretty authentic-looking Santa who is very, very popular with the kids.

The trip home – and cuddle time with Michael – was followed by some work to get everything put away in the music room; and then Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me so that we could wrap up our night with a Christmas movie in the lounge. Rowen had to go and get Tim first, so Michael and I had hot chocolate and snacks ready by the time they joined us; and that gave us a chance to get the daily update from Mom, Dad, the twins, Naomi, and Aiden too.

I'd missed out on a family dinner at Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace's, but they didn't do a movie too; and Naomi and Aiden were picked up on the way home so that they could stay for a sleepover ahead of the shopping trip – mostly to give their parents a few less things to do when three out of four of them were going to be busy with work all weekend.

While some teen time would have been nice, I was good with spending that movie time with Ethan, Ehlana, and their best friends too; and the boys didn't mind watching 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' – the live action version; not the cartoon. The four younger kids opted for pillows and blankets on the floor, and while I loved cuddling with Michael while we watched the movie too; my favorite part of that scene was seeing Naomi opt to share a pillow and cuddle under a blanket with Ethan; and then fall asleep with his arm around her waist. That choice had Aiden and Ehlana together too; but they weren't being quite so cozy together.

Mom and Dad thought that Naomi and Ethan were adorable too when they came up stairs to have all four kids head for bed; and I'm sure that Liz will love the picture that Mom took and planned on sending to her in the morning. Being so adorable earned the kids a little bit of extra cuddle time while Mom and Dad talked with us; but then Michael and I helped out with getting them to bed – in the correct rooms and beds – while Rowen and Tim started to work on the post-movie clean-up.

They didn't get much of that done for some unexplained reason; so Michael and I helped out with that once we'd returned to the lounge. We cleaned up there; carried the cups and plates down to the kitchen; and washed everything up before Rowen and Tim went home first; and Michael and I spent a few, non-verbal minutes saying goodnight to each other in the living room.

It was twelve-thirty by the time I got back up here to my room, and while I've done my basic nightly computer checks; it's time for me to get some sleep. We're going to have a very busy day of shopping tomorrow; and I want to be at full power for that! This has been a really good day; and I'm fairly sure that the rest of the weekend is going to just keep getting better as we go along.

All that's left to do now is add a little music to the mix. My song pick for this update has been known to make me cry while singing it; and that's why it makes my favorites list. I recommend have a box of tissues handy before watching this one! ;^)

The Christmas Shoes - Newsong

May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Happy 13th Birthday, Dawn!

Her special day conveniently included a Christmas shopping trip to Crystal Springs; so I really loved getting to share at least a little bit of the birthday fun with her – and with Jillian and the other friends she brought along for the trip.

Before I get to that, let's back up and start from the beginning.

We skipped Tai Chi this morning because we were busy enough getting seven people ready and out the door in time for the seven o'clock buffet breakfast at the Inn. Ehlana, Naomi, and I had a bit of extra fun with doing our hair and playing dress-up; but we still managed to be ready early and we were all at the Inn with time to spare. Michael met us there because he went in early with his parents to help out with the prep work for breakfast; so I made a side-trip to the kitchen to pick him up on the way through to the dining room – and took that opportunity to share some good morning hugs and kisses with him – and with Jacob and some other friends.

Breakfast was a whirlwind of food and entertainment, and while that was all fun too; it didn't really feel as though we were there long before it was time to hurry up and rush around for a while again – right up until we were in the minivan and had an hour and a half of sitting around to do between home and the mall. Miranda and Jacob had a full house for that first buffet sitting, and mom and Aunt Leanne were busy too as they made sure that one hundred and twenty-two kids and teens were matched up with forty-eight parents and chaperones and in one of the forty-five vehicles that left town for the city by eight o'clock.

That seemed especially tough for Aunt Leanne, and while she'd reconsidered coming along with us all morning; Uncle Adam successfully talked her into staying home and taking the day off after a busy week that had already included one long shopping day to go with the work and extra help for Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark. She still went shopping around town for the big sale day here; but staying home today really was better for her – even though I would have liked to spend some time with her too.

Okay, that would have been about two minutes; since we were all busy all day; but you know what I mean.

Aunt Leanne wasn't the only girl in the family skipping this trip. Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah stayed home for obvious reasons too; which is why Michael and I were put in the travel group with Uncle Adam and Uncle Nick – so that we could help with keeping Zack and Leah entertained during the drive time to and from the city. That wasn't exactly the most exciting option we could have gotten; but we still had fun with my cousins – especially when Zack was sleeping.

Just kidding, Zack! ;^)

Actually, Zack is developing quite the unique little 'public' character as he moves into his toddler phase, and while there is obviously a lot of Aunt Leanne in him; he has his own unique sense of humor. For anyone reading this in the future who knew Zack as a kid, but didn't know that he was a Magi too at the time; you probably would have guessed that he wasn't. I won't be surprised to find out some day that was exactly his intention – to have an act so convincing that nobody would suspect his 'secret identity'.

His antics already have a tendency to annoy some girls, though; and he seems to enjoy bugging Leah and the other girls his age a lot – which is why Leah was so happy to have me along to help run interference. Michael actually took care of most of the work for distracting Zack; but Leah and I had fun playing with some of her toys too; and we all watched some Christmas cartoons on the entertainment system in the minivan. I'll bet that the grandparents around town would have a lot fewer kids-drove-us-crazy travel stories if they'd had entertainment systems, iPads, and portable game systems back in the old days!

So the trip to the city was toddler-rated and weirdly entertaining; but Michael and I were ready for some teen interaction by the time we got to the mall. We needed to meet up with our group first – and with Aunt Melissa, Uncle Rick, Dawn, and the rest of their gang too; but then Mom set us free to hang out with Rowen and Tim for an hour or so before our first turn helping out as junior chaperones. We started out that part of our shopping adventure with Dawn, Jillian, and the rest of their friends; but most of those girls either wanted to do other things than we did – or were a little too busy checking out Michael and Tim in a flirty sort of way; so we ended up moving on and doing our own thing instead.

Michael, Rowen, and I were fairly organized for our Christmas shopping plans, and though Tim wasn't; we helped him to actually get the most important gifts for his favorite people. That was the main job that Michael and I had as junior helpers too – helping Ethan, Ehlana, and some of the other kids with picking out gifts for their family and friends. We were still able to do our shopping too, and Mom made sure that we had time to do that as well; but I really loved hanging out with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, and some of the other kids whenever we were helping them.

There was a lot going on, and way too much to include in this update; but I'll cover some of the highlights. Topping the list of Christmas-themed fun was our visit with Santa. Watching Ethan, Ehlana, and the other kids in our group do that was great; but Rowen and I probably earned the most laughs when we both sat on Santa's knees and got our picture taken with him. Next up on the Christmas highlights list was probably the entire time we spent in the toy store this afternoon – mostly because we got to play with a lot of the cool new toys while having fun with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden too. That was also one part of the day when I missed Aunt Leanne the most today, since she always has fun with the toys too; but Mom helped out with that a bit by telling us some of the toy store stories from their trip on Tuesday.

Celebrating Dawn's birthday while in Christmas shopping mode seemed strange, but we were in full birthday mode at lunchtime; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were with Dawn and her gang for the birthday party lunch in the food court. We did the full gifts, cake, candles, and song thing in record time; and that blast of fun was one of the highlights today while also being too short before we all needed to get back to the shopping again.

Whether Michael and I were together and with our friends or together and helping younger kids; it was the doing those things with him that made the best parts of our day so great. There were some good moments when we were doing girls' and guys' things separately too – like when Rowen and I picked out gifts for Michael and Tim or we were shopping with the girls and Michael helped to keep the boys entertained while we were looking for 'boring' gifts; but I'm really glad that Michael was able to have the day off from the Inn to do this with me. That might not be an option in the not too distant future; so I'll appreciate these days when I can.

Let's move this along a bit. After lunch, we had another hour at the mall; moved on to our favorite big-box toy store; and then did the usual wrap-up stop at Wal-Mart. Since Mom had just done her trip here on Tuesday, she didn't need a supply run; so that stop was mostly just a chance for kids and teens to finish up some gift buying. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden with us for that stop; and that's where we picked up most of our classmates and friends gifts. After a season of football and cheerleading, that was a longer list for four of us; but we managed to get most of that done – without resorting to gift cards or other generic gifts.

Michael and I were back with the same travel group, and everyone stopped somewhere for food to go before heading out of the city; so we kept busy for a while as we ate and helped Zack and Leah to eat too. It was movie time after that, though, and while I joked about Zack sleeping; he and Leah both napped pretty much from that point until we got home again and needed to start unloading the minivan. We did that at Uncle Nick's house first; then at Uncle Adam's before Michael and I carried our own things back to our own homes.

That sounds like more work than it was because most of our things were in Dad's truck or Mom's minivan anyway; and they already had everything unloaded by the time I got home. I did take one load over to Michael's house after dropping my load off; and then brought him home with me for the evening. We did a hot chocolate and snacks break in the kitchen with Mom and Dad; and then Michael and I took Ethan and Ehlana up to the lounge with us to watch a Christmas show with them while Mom and Dad did some work in the office before bedtime.

We watched one of the twins' favorite Christmas cartoons – Holly and Hal Moose – Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure. That one is popular with most of the younger kids in town; which is why Michael and I are learning the song from the show for one of the acts in the school Christmas pageant. It is a cute little show, and we had fun with Ethan and Ehlana; but I was also very glad to get some quality alone time with Michael after Mom and Dad caught the end of the show with us and then took Ethan and Ehlana with them when they were all ready to go to bed for the night.

Have I mentioned recently that Michael and I do not get enough alone time? We did our best to make up for that tonight. Clothing was optional for our play time, and though Michael had a curfew; a bit of time-phasing gave us all of the time we needed to have as much make-out fun as we wanted before we were ready to end out night with a bit of quiet cuddling. With the added use of Magi power for more than just the time-phase; I'll rate that part of our evening as right at the top of the hot scale – which has a lot to do with why I wish that we'd just pretended to fall asleep together on the sofa and I kept Michael here for the rest of the night.

As usual, don't take those comments to mean more than they do – we've made our own intimate play rules; and we have the self-control to stick to them. It isn't as though we haven't both needed to learn to be in control at all times from when we were babies; so doing that when it comes to our sexual relationship shouldn't be a surprise to any Magi.

Then again, Violet found out about her own abilities during a minor make-out session, and though she didn't know what it was at the time; I'd say that has to be one of the more interesting ways for a Magi to find out about things like that! ;^)

Speaking of Violet, I doubt she's thinking about make-out sessions tonight – or having as much fun as Michael and I did today while getting ready for her final exams this weekend. I'll do the teen update tomorrow night, though; since I'm tired and ready to wrap this up and get some sleep.

Michael went home at twelve-thirty, and after seeing him out; I grabbed a quick shower, got ready for bed, and was snuggling with Mandy by one o'clock. My computer checks haven't taken long, and while I took care of one quick family business job; I'll still be in nap mode by one-thirty if I hurry and get this done. There really was so much going on that I can't report all of it here; but I guess we have covered most of the highlights for my personal day; and I'm sure that everyone else keeping Magi journals now will have their own reports; so my work here is done – except for the daily Christmas music video.

I love the classic Christmas songs as much as anyone, but I enjoy hearing original, new songs too; so here's a comparatively recent addition to lots of teens' Christmas music playlists – mine included.

Christmas Must Be Something More – Taylor Swift

May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, December 7, 2014

I have a serious case of the warm fuzzies going on tonight as I wrap up my night with this journal update – even after spending hours on my computer doing my usual school night studies and family business work. That's just how awesome our day has been!

While we had a really good morning too, the fun kicked up into high gear after church; starting with the news that we had a lot of extra friends coming with us to the Christmas tree farm today. The best part of that for me was that Michael was getting another day off from helping out at the Inn so that he could do this with me – and Rebecca and Lucas were joining his family and going on the adventure too. The Norton's even came home with us for lunch so that they didn't have to drive out to their farm first; so we had a lot of fun with that too. I won't do the full list of tree-hunting adventurers from here that were at the Christmas tree farm today; but I will add that all of our local family was there except for the two new Moms and babies; Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy came along too; and Rowen and Tim were there with his parents. There was a Bassett family contingent too; so Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden had Sophia with them; and Michael and I helped out with junior kid control on a regular basis.

Before I get to that part of the report though, let's back up for a second to the lunch break. I really loved getting to spend that hour or so with Lucas, Emma, and their family. It's funny that Dad works with Claire every weekday in the office except for his week in the city; yet the rest of us don't see her all that often; and we rarely do things together with both families. While our meal was just soup and mini-sub sandwiches; it was the time together that was special. I'd add in something about doing that more often, but we're all really busy; have lots of other, higher priority responsibilities; and that just isn't very likely to happen. I'll just be grateful for having one really awesome afternoon with our friends and family and leave it at that.

Even our sub-group of family and friends needed quite a convoy of minivans and trucks to have room for everyone; and it seemed like the parking lot at the Christmas tree farm was half-filled with Witch Falls visitor vehicles – though that's an exaggeration. Needing to split up and go on a half-dozen hay rides to pick out our trees isn't embellished, though; and we only had 'our' family, the Nortons, and Landrys with us. Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia were able to spend some time with us too; but only because the Bassetts and their group were on the ride immediately after ours; and they were tree-hunting in the same area.

I thought that picking out a few trees on my first visit to the farm was a big deal, but today was crazy as we picked out twelve trees for our group alone. Having a really great afternoon for weather was a bonus, if not all that Christmassy feeling with no snow; but then it probably wouldn't have been as much fun doing all of that while freezing our tails off. We did split up into smaller groups to get those trees chosen, so we didn't mess up the hayride schedule at all; and our guides and tree experts kept us on-track too with their enthusiastic help.

While the hayride and tree hunt is the main event of a visit to the place; the hot drinks, snacks, and tour of the Christmas store is my favorite part of the adventure. Michael and I didn't have any personal special moments while we were there; but there were some special family moments – like having Uncle Mark and Uncle Nick pick up 'baby's first Christmas' ornaments for Caleb and Sebastian. We did get to have fun with Rowen and Tim – once the boys had finished helping out with getting the trees loaded onto the various trucks; though we also had at least a small group of kids with us too as we had our treats and wandered the store. I picked up a few new decorations for the lounge, and Mom and Dad had a few purchases too; but we probably spent more on the Christmas cookies, cider, and other treats to go than on anything else – except for the trees.

The trip home was fast compared to doing the rounds delivering trees; and Michael and I were on that crew as we dropped off trees at the Everett, Carrington, Stone, and Ayres homes before delivering the last one to our place. Not all of those trees were huge, but most were; and hauling eight-foot trees and setting them up in stands takes a while; so it was nearly dinnertime when we were finished – with just enough time left over to clean up before sitting down to eat in the kitchen. We didn't have any company for that meal – other than Michael; so that was the quietest part of the day for us since Tai Chi this morning. Some of the other families were doing tree trimming tonight too; but Rowen was with Tim; Rebecca was out at the Norton farm/ and the rest of our collective group of family and friends were doing their own thing too – including Naomi and Aiden.

By the way, we picked up trees for the Seagers and Drapers too; but their deliveries were on the Norton's or Landry's trucks. Dad's truck wasn't the only one that was overloaded with trees today. Next year we might need to think about taking trailers too!

Dinner was a crock pot lasagna that Mom put on to cook before we left; along with a salad and garlic bread with cheese. I loved that, and we all loved the easy clean-up that allowed us to get to the tree trimming fairly quickly after we finished eating. We didn't do a dessert tonight, but made up for that by dipping into the Christmas cookie and cider stash we'd brought home with us from the Christmas store. Decorating the tree and living room is going to be more fun every year as Ethan and Ehlana get older, and I hope that I'll get to do that with Michael every year from now on too – though I'm sure there will be years when we'll be busy at the Inn or with his family instead. Tonight was magical, though; and I mean that in a literal sense. '^)

That's right, folks – we were on our own; and tree trimming using our Magi gifts is seriously awesome! Okay, Mom was technically doing a lesson with Michael, Ethan, Ehlana, and me; but let's not kid ourselves – we were doing it because it was ultra-fun. In our house, at least for tonight; having Santa and his reindeer fly was an option – along with dancing snowflakes; glowing and floating angels; and Christmas lights that sparkled and flashed without having the strands plugged in yet.

Try it sometime – you'll love it!

Michael and I had some boring stuff to take care of once the tree was trimmed and we'd cleaned up; so we were all in the office for an hour or so doing our homework. For mom and Dad, that was business; the twins are starting their college exams next week, so they got ready for that; and Michael and I did our school homework. Since we had been able to do the decorating fairly quickly, so even with the homework session; we still had time to play music for a while and even watch a bedtime Christmas show with Ethan and Ehlana in the lounge before Michael needed to head home after we tucked them in for the night.

That only gave us a small window of opportunity for a minor make-out session too; but we were okay with that when everything else today has been so amazing. If he hadn't been set free for the day; we wouldn't have gotten to spend any time together at all.

The rest of my night after he left has been all work and studying; and I'm up even later than usual because I want to work ahead this week to get ready for doing as little studying or family business work as possible over the holidays – and during the last week of school too if I can manage that. My only extra news from tonight is the college family and friends update, and that's easy – they're all totally focused on final exams for the semester – and start writing them tomorrow. I'm sure that they all wish they'd been able to come and play with us today instead of cramming for exams; but they do get to make up for that with a longer Christmas break than we get to have. I'm not wishing to get a month or more off at Christmas if the trade-off would be starting the school year in mid-August or staying in school until mid-July; but most colleges do manage to get finished by mid or late-May too; and that might be nice if we could do that too.

It's too late for that kind of musing, and I really should get started on my nap time; so let's do the Christmas music video thing and call it a night.

This Christmas song was one of my favorites from when Mom and I were on our own, and our holiday celebrations really were very small compared to the big-family and friends Christmases we've been blessed to share since moving here to Witch Falls.

Christmas is All in the Heart – Steven Curtis Chapman

May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Lily!

We've had a very interesting evening at Lily's birthday party; but before I go there; let's start with the rest of the daily update – starting with some morning Christmas fun.

Before even getting around to Tai Chi, Ethan, Ehlana, and I found out that an Elf on the Shelf and three reindeer Elf Pets arrived overnight and were waiting for us on the kitchen table. Michael was with us by the time we named our Elf 'Sparkle'; since that is very important if you want your Elf to get her – or his – magic and be able to fly to the North Pole every night and check in with Santa. I named my reindeer 'Winter'; and Ethan and Ehlana went with 'Snowball' and 'Snowflake' for theirs. While our Elf could lose her magic if we touch her; our reindeer need lots of love, cuddles, and kisses to save up Christmas magic in their pendants; so we get to play with them all of the time.

Three Magi Master kids have a lot of magic to give our Elf Pets too! ;^)

I took my new little reindeer buddy to school with me, and while Winter and I got razzed about doing that; she was very popular with the younger kids today – especially when they found out that Winter is happy to get hugs and kisses from every kid she meets. That helped to make our music practices today more entertaining; and even getting razzed by Tim and some of the other guys was fun too. There were elves and reindeer arriving at other family homes this morning too, and while Zack and Leah probably had fun with that; Caleb and Sebastian are a bit young to appreciate the new additions to their Christmas traditions quite yet. I haven't had a chance to meet the other elves in the family yet; but I did get a quick report on how that went for everyone else while I was home between the end of school and the start of Lily's party.

Lily's birthday was the biggest story in our class today; though the boys were all over the college football action from the weekend too. The conference championship games were dissected; and the bowl game decisions were debated – particularly the new playoff format for the top four teams. While the new format for choosing the college football champion has changed, the semi-final playoff format hasn't resolved every problem; so the teams that were excluded and shunted to less-important bowl games still have issues with how fair the system is for them.

I don't really want to write about football tonight, though, so let's just move along and leave all of that to the people who really care about it.

While we did do some school work today too, the highlights for my day were the music time with the kids and the little birthday party we had for Lily at lunchtime. As I mentioned, I was home long enough after school to get the daily report from Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana – and to get changed and ready for Lily's party before Michael picked me up for the walk over to her house. The elf stories were the most entertaining, but they had a good day too – playing or working at the lab; and having lunch with Aunt Grace, Uncle Mark, and Caleb to do a little business meeting that was mostly just to keep Aunt Grace in the loop for what was going on at the lab. I'll be very surprised if she isn't stopping in to do some work there on a regular basis by early January.

That walk, by the way, was a change from Lily's party day last year when we had snow; it was colder; and Mom gave us a ride to her house. Today it was sunny and close to fifty at party time; though it cooled off quite a bit by the time we came home tonight.

Pretty much everything at Lily's party tonight was teen-normal for around here; though there was some weirdness too with her new, eighth-grade boyfriend, Reid, making his first party appearance with our gang of niners. The guys didn't get too goofy about that because it is Lily's birthday – and her parents were in the house too; but now that I've spent a few hours around them outside of school; I think that Lily and Reid are a pretty good match. Her parents certainly like him; so that's a bonus.

The pre-dinner social hour included music and video gaming in the family room or living room; since we needed to spread out to have room for everyone – including her family dinner guests. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I spent about half of that time together; and the boys were off playing video games for the rest of the time while Rowen and I chatted with the other girls. Dinner was teen-approved finger foods; with pizza, wings, and battered fish or chicken strips the main options along with lots of salads and veggie sides. We needed to be spread out for that too, and Michael and I were not part of the group with Lily in the dining room; but we did all gather there when it was time to do the birthday song; have Lily open her gifts; and then move on again to have dessert.

It was play time after that, and while video gaming was still the top entertainment for the guys; there was a bit of dancing going on in the living room while that was chat-central for the girls – and couples when the boys weren't taking a turn with the gaming. I really like Lily, and consider her as much of a friend as the rest of my non-best-friend classmates; but we're also different enough that I doubt we'll ever run in the same daily friends circles. That's okay, and that isn't really possible to do with everyone anyway – even in a small town. It's tough enough trying to find time when Michael and I can hang out with Rowen and Tim sometimes; and trying to do that with twenty-five or thirty friends every week would be impossible – even if we did have places big enough to hang out together around here.

I'm getting side-tracked, though; so let's get back to the story. What's most important here is that Lily has had a really good day; and everyone at her party seemed to be happy and having fun too. My party highlights included a couple of dances with Michael; some cuddle time with Michael; and sharing a few kisses with Michael here and there. Are you sensing a pattern here? ;^)

The hang-out time with Lily, Reid, Rowen, Tim, and the rest of our friends was pretty good too; and it didn't even seem like we'd been there all that long before it was time to head home again. It's a school night; and a fourteenth birthday milestone did not earn curfew extension for anyone. Add to that the fact that we all had homework to get done before morning too; and the teen exodus from Lily's house went smoothly without any major delays – or at least none that we saw before leaving somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Michael walked me home, and we shared a lengthy goodnight hug and kisses on my front porch; but he didn't come in; and we'd decided on the walk home to just do our own homework instead of doing that together. I couldn't get to that right away because Mom did my Magi lesson shortly after I got home – while Ethan and Ehlana were busy writing one of their final exams and Dad was busy with his homework. I followed that up with some bedtime fun with my brother and sister; and then came up to my room for some Jacuzzi and study time multi-tasking. Since I'm still working ahead to get ready for the Christmas break; that was more than four and a half hours ago; and I'm predicting that I'll be doing another round of self-healing in the morning – which will be in about an hour and forty-five minutes.

That is pretty much everything I have for tonight, though; so let's wrap this up with the Christmas music video thing and call it a night.

I love some of the music that Pentatonix is doing, so here's a second Christmas video from them for my Christmas favorites this year!

Little Drummer Boy - Pentatonix

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The sub-freezing temperatures were back again this morning; and it didn't warm up much all day. We didn't get any snow, and I have been enjoying the warmer weather when we get it; but it did feel more Christmassy today as we enjoyed a busy day of school and Christmas fun. That included all of our music practices at school and at church; and trimming the tree at Michael's house tonight with his family and Lucas.

Adding tests at school and homework assignments to that mix just doesn't seem to fit in at all, and that did happen; but let's just leave those un-fun parts of the day there and move along.

Michael and I had a blast with our kid music practices today; and my new little reindeer buddy, Winter, is saving up a lot of Christmas love and magic thanks to the cuddles and kisses she's getting from all of those kids – and more than a few teens too. Other Elf Pets are showing up around school already today, so I may have started a trend today; but at least mine won't be as glaringly annoying as the orange fashion phase the boys so recently abandoned. I really hope that one doesn't come back next year!

The other musical highlights of the day were our band teen praise team practices; and both of them were all about Christmas. For band, we're getting ready for the Maple Valley Christmas parade on Saturday morning; and we're continuing to get ready for the Christmas concert with the teen praise team. For that, I haven't mentioned that other teens have been working in other groups on the skits and everything else that's going into the mini-cantata that we're putting on this year; but we were all together tonight for our first full run-through of the entire program. That took a little extra time, but it went pretty well; and we'll be doing a full dress-rehearsal next Tuesday evening. It's hard to believe that concert is now just a week from Sunday night away!

With all of that music time going on, adding in a tree-trimming and dinner meant staying very busy all evening – and a bit rushed; but that was all amazing too. Miranda and Jacob worked around our schedule; and Lucas is spending the night at their house too so that he was able to do the tree-trimming with Rebecca. He's technically staying there as Michael's guest; but that's really just a fiction that their parents are having fun with – particularly Miranda and Claire.

The actual decorating happened in two stages for us – before our praise team practice and after we got home again. Some other work went on while we were gone; but Miranda made sure that we were all there for the important parts of the decorating – like hanging the ornaments. That is something extra-special at Michael's house because his mother has the best stories about so many of those family ornament heirlooms from both the Stone and Bassett families. On her side of the family, those ornaments are just part of the family story, since her parents handed some of those family treasures down to all of their kids, but Jacob's sister basically didn't want any of their Christmas treasures; so Jacob has all of them – and he and Miranda know all of the cool stories that go with them.

As you might expect in a town with family roots that go back for centuries, some of those heirlooms are actually quite valuable; but it's the hand-made ornaments with the great stories that I loved the most. I also loved seeing that those family traditions are being carried through to today – and Michael, Rebecca, and Jake all have their own contributions to the family tree – so to speak. I've never really thought about that much, but Mom and I don't have that at all – the physical family history for things like Christmas – or even family photo albums or anything else – not that we could show them in public even if we did. Sure, we have the archives, and some of those books were written Mom's parents; but that isn't the same at all.

The good news is that we're getting to build that history now – since moving here to Witch Falls; and our new family is happy to share their history with us.

Anyway, I should move this along; since it's really late and I'm going to be having my third night in a row with only having time for a nap. It was eleven o'clock by the time I went home after some cuddle time with Michael in the living room by Christmas tree light so that we – and Rebecca and Lucas – could appreciate our decorating efforts. Miranda and Jacob were there for the start of that little break in the action, but they'll actually be getting up soon to get ready for work at the Inn; so they went to bed at a bit before ten-thirty. Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana were all still up when I got home; so I did my Magi lesson with Mom then while the twins were finishing up one of their college exams and Dad wrapped up his work homework for the night too.

We did that until midnight; Mom, Dad, and I all got in on the fun for putting Ethan and Ehlana to bed; and then I came up to my room and got started on my bedtime studies and family business work as soon as I was changed and in bed with Mandy. There was some fun mixed in with that too, but it was mostly work; so let's not have the details from that mess up all of the fun I've had for the rest of the day. That said, tomorrow is our after-school work day, and while I've been using Wednesdays for a sleep catch-up day; I'm not planning on doing that this week. Instead of getting the extra down time; I'm going to keep pushing the studies and extra family business work; and try to get enough done so that I can start my Christmas vacation from that at the end of this week instead of next week. Yes, as always, I'll still have the daily upkeep for the family business; but that shouldn't take hours a night – and I won't have the language studies at all – or archive assignments either if Mom gives me the time off from my lessons.

I really want to take the time to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends this year, and if you're reading this in the future and don't take enough time to just sit back and enjoy life now and then; try to do exactly that now and then too. Trust me, I can relate to the pressure that comes with responsibilities and a drive to achieve, for whatever reasons; and I should definitely take my own advice more often.

If I'm still around when you read this in my future; let me know how you think I'm doing with that! ;^)

For tonight, though, I've definitely had enough fun, so let's do the Christmas music video pick of the day and call it a night.

I love this song; and the version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas that it's from! If you haven't seen it in whenever your now is; I hope you can – it should be a Christmas comedy classic!

Where Are You Christmas – Faith Hill

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

I've hit the wall, and will be going into nap mode shortly; but my work and studying is now done for the rest of the year so it was worth one ridiculous blast of effort to make that happen.

Doing that required working pretty much non-stop since getting home from school today – including during dinner. I also pushed the limits of my ability to stay in a time-phase while doing a lot of that work; which is why I was able to get everything done – by doing the equivalent of a couple of weeks of 'normal' Magi-powered work and studying in one night.

With a bit more practice, it won't be long before I'll be able to give Santa some competition with how much he gets done in one night of work a year! ;^)

I'll let him keep the title for most cookies and milk consumed in a night, though; since Michael probably wouldn't find that whole bowl full of jelly thing very attractive on me. Even my metabolism would have a problem with eating billions of cookies in one day; and I'll guess that's why the sleigh needs to empty out as the night goes along – to make room for Santa!

That's taken this update off the rails a bit, and the only news for today really is that I'm done my work now except for the daily upkeep for the family business; and enjoying my Christmas and upcoming break from school is now an option. Needing a self-healing wake-up call after my nap will be required; but if I have any more four o'clock or later mornings between now and the New Year; it'll be totally due to having fun instead of from working. Let's do the Christmas music video for tonight and then I am so out of here!

This isn't exactly a new Christmas song, or an old classic yet either; but it is one of my all-time favorites.

Grown-up Christmas List – Amy Grant

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

I'm writing this while spending some quality time in my Jacuzzi tonight; and it is so great to just relax for a while and know that I don't have hours of work left to do before getting around to the sleeping part of my night.

We had a pretty good day at school, with a mix of work and play time that included two tests; but the real fun got started after we were set free for the day. The study session with Michael, Tim, and Rowen was at my house – mostly so that we could work on our music as well as a bit of studying for our last test of the year and the usual homework assignments. I haven't mentioned it before now, but there are two big events on the schedule for Friday – at least for some of us. Tomorrow afternoon, that's the Seniors' Christmas party in the church reception hall that the band will be playing at; and the school Christmas dance is tomorrow night. That was the top chat topic of the day for the tweens and teens at school, though if I'm being honest about it; I don't really think about it anymore now that Michael and I just do all of those things together now. Yes, I guess we'll technically be on a date tomorrow night, and we're going to have fun; but I mostly just had other things to deal with before today that kept that dance – and other things – on the back burner while I was busy.

Anyway, Michael, Rowen, and I practiced our music for tomorrow afternoon and the parade on Saturday; and then Tim joined us to practice 'our' song for the school Christmas pageant next week. Michael and I needed to get to the Inn after that. It wasn't a particularly busy night for customers, so we didn't have to work too hard; and we even had extra time for dinner before helping out with the clean-up and dining room set-up for game night. We had another quiet evening for gaming this week too; but that didn't translate into any championships for the Stone or Proctor families. Rowen and Tim won the junior title; and the Carter family took home the senior championship. Since one of their KidZone friends, Caroline Carter, 'helped' her parents to win; they were happy for their friend; and know that our best chance will be next week when Mom gets paired up with Miranda for the last game night of the year while Dad's away and working in the city.

We stayed to help with the clean-up; walked home with Michael and his family; and then moved on to our place to get started on work, exams, or a Magi lesson. Doing exams that late sounds tough for Ethan and Ehlana, but they were doing a short, practical exam; and it was actually a breeze for them. My Magi lesson was probably harder; but it was more fun too. Doing the bedtime story and tucking my brother and sister in for the night was great; and the Jacuzzi time right now is awesome.

Getting to sleep before midnight on a Thursday for the first time in what feels like a very long time is going to be good for me, but if I'm going to hit that little goal; I need to wrap this up, get out of the tub, and finish getting ready for bed. The only thing that was missing from an otherwise really good day was much in the way of Michael and me alone time. The good news is that we have the dance tomorrow night and we're babysitting on Saturday night too; so I'll probably just keep Michael here on Saturday night. I am sure that we are going to find some time to work on making some Christmas magic for two this weekend – and hopefully we'll be able to find more time for that over the holidays too!

That'll be something worth dreaming about tonight, so let's finish this up with the nightly Christmas music video so that I can get right to that. My pick for today makes my list because I love teen musical movies, and that includes several movies by this teen and tween-favorite pop-and-movie star. It's definitely been a recent favorite Christmas song for kids and teens – even if some of those teens are too cool to admit it. I guess that means that I'm either not cool, or don't care what other people think about what I do and don't like when it comes to music; but I'll let you, dear future reader, decide that for yourself while you watch the video in your now and I go get some sleep in mine.

What Christmas Should Be – Hilary Duff

May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, December 12, 2014

There has been a lot going on today, so I'll try to keep it in order for this update and start from the beginning.

It was warmer today again, though not so warm that we could take Tai Chi outdoors this morning. The forecast is looking really good for the parade in Maple Valley tomorrow too, and while cold and snow is definitely more Christmassy; it will be a lot nicer playing our music outdoors when the temperature is in the fifties instead of sub-freezing! Tai Chi was still fun this morning, and so was having Michael stay for breakfast.

That was also pretty much the last quiet time we had for the rest of the day. Michael and I were on the go nearly every minute from the time we got to school. We had a test and two music practices to fit into our morning; we spent most of our lunch break helping out with getting everything the band needed for the Seniors' Christmas party over to the church and set up; and then we had a busy afternoon of fun and music. In addition to our band music, Michael and I were also semi-drafted to sing and play a duet, and since that was a spur-of-the-moment thing; we went with 'White Christmas'. We didn't have Michael's guitar or my keyboard; so I used the piano in the hall and Michael borrowed a practice guitar that one of the praise team musicians leaves at the church. If we weren't making the old ladies cry for the wrong reasons; I'd say we did well enough with our version of the song; and our entire musical program was a hit with our audience.

If all of that wasn't crazy enough, Rowen, Tim, and I helped with getting everything back to the school, and while Tim isn't in the band; it was after school by then; so he helped out too. Michael needed to get to the Inn to pitch in for the dinner rush prep work, and once we were finished at the school; Rowen and I multi-tasked getting ready for the dance with having dinner and getting our homework out of the way for the weekend. Tim didn't join us for that, though he had offered to help Rowen with getting ready for the dance while their parents were all working late, so after picking up clothes at her house; we were able to use a little Magi power to help out with getting everything done with time to spare before Michael and Tim picked us up for our date.

Dad needed to take pictures before we left, and Michael and Tim were suitably impressed with the effort Rowen and I put into getting ready and dressed up for the dance; so that part of our night got off to a great start. We also soon found out that the members of the school band weren't the only teens who had been busy this afternoon – the decorating for the dance was wonderful; and set the scene for what I hope was a perfect night for nearly everyone who was there.

It certainly was perfect for Michael and me!

We danced; had fun with our friends; enjoyed some awesome Olde Bakery Christmas treats; and dance some more. There were a lot of little things that went into making the Christmas dance this year so much different for us than last year – though our first one together will still always be magical for me too. The most obvious is probably the fact that Michael is a popular football star now and I'm a cheerleader; so we're able to mingle with pretty much every group of teens and tweens. We're not in the middle of any teen dramas either, and Rowen and I don't have any other girls mad at us this year; so that makes going to dances more fun for us too. There have been some physical developments for both of us since this time last year, and while that statement has my thoughts wandering off somewhere fun and intimate; my point there is more about the difference between Michael and me in height.

A year ago, I wore nearly-flat shoes because there was only an inch in height between us. Michael's now about three inches taller than me; so my footwear options are expanding. That doesn't mean I'm trying to learn how to walk on six-inch spikes or anything; but I am moving up a level or two on style. Some women who are reading this might be feeling sorry for me while thinking about their first dances wearing any kind of heels and the sore feet that usually go with those first hours of dancing. Don't hate me, but that isn't actually a problem for someone who self-heals – no foot-pun intended. ;^)

Getting back to the dance, though; let's cover a few favorite moments. Every kiss with Michael under the Mistletoe made the top of my best-moments list. Dancing with Michael – especially to slow songs – was number two; and cuddling with Michael while we sat and talked with Rowen, Tim, and the rest of our friends was number three. There seems to be a pattern there. I did manage to notice a few other things going on tonight that didn't involve Michael and me, with one of those top stories being Rebecca and Lucas' first Christmas dance together.

I don't really think about this much, or mention it in my journal very often, but for those of you in the future who might not know Rebecca; she is as stunningly beautiful as her father and brother are handsome. While that gets her some unwanted attention now and then; she loves seeing Lucas' reaction to her – a soft, earnest, and slightly astonished-looking awe. He truly is amazed that she's picked him; though he shouldn't be. Rebecca knows that he loves her for all of the right reasons. The fact that she's the hottest girl in the school is just a seriously awesome bonus for him!

Moving along, Rowen and Tim were having as much fun tonight as Michael and I did; most of our friends seemed to be enjoying themselves; and Lily and Reid were probably the top teen couple story for our grade tonight as they were together for their first major teen dating event since getting together at Thanksgiving. While that story is sweet, there was also some teen or tween drama and some occasional weirdness. I don't really want to go there when my night really was amazing; but I guess it wouldn't be fair to pretend that everything around me was perfect at the dance when I know that it wasn't.

On the weird side of things, I still find it very uncomfortable when some couples take their public displays of affection way further than I ever would – and I do mean ever! Yes, I know that's entirely a personal standard, and I'd likely be shocked if I went to a big-city school dance or something; but I'm just being honest about how I feel. Since I have written about that before, though; let's not dwell on it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time ranting about Christmas break-ups either, and I won't include names here either; but breaking up at a Christmas dance is right up there with the worst ways of doing that. Tonight, there were three guys and one girl who seriously deserve to be on Santa's naughty list – and I'm referring to the worst ways to break up with someone – not the too-enthusiastic, making-out-in-public kind of naughty.

Here's a suggestion for a few simple Christmas dating rules. Don't invite someone or accept an invitation to a Christmas dance if you're just going to ruin your date's night by breaking up with them in such a public way. Don't go to a Christmas dance with a date and then blow them off and hook up – and go home – with someone else. Finally, don't go to a Christmas dance and then put your date down all night and be rude and obnoxious to him or her. Setting the groundwork for a break-up at a dance is nearly as bad as going ahead and making the big scene would be.

Oh, and as I've mentioned before, if you're breaking up with your girlfriend or boyfriend to avoid Christmas gift buying; that should be an automatic for putting you on Santa's naughty list – especially if you've already planned the make-up' for the week after Christmas.

Yes, this is a small town, and we generally all try to be good, but we're not perfect; and that kind of thing does happen here too – if not to the same extent as in other places.

That's enough of the downside of the local teen zone; so let's move this along.

It really didn't cool off that much by the time that Michael walked me home after the dance. We walked part-way with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, and Lucas; but split up to go to three separate homes. Michael came inside with me, and while that was partly to give Rebecca and Lucas a little alone time before his mother picked him up; we were okay with having some wind-down cuddle time too. We did that in the living room instead of going up to the lounge; and Mandy joined us for a bit of telepathic chat time while cuddling with us. That wasn't exactly hot or romantic, but it was fun; and a nice, comfortable way to wrap up an amazing day.

We do have the parade in the morning, so Michael only stayed for a half-hour or so before heading home for the night. Mandy and I saw him out; watched him walk home; and then came up to bed. I've only been doing the basic nightly computing; and the only news I have to report from that is from my favorite collegians. They're all finished with exams now, and some of them are here at home already; but others won't be travelling until tomorrow – and two of my favorite couples won't be back until next Monday. Violet and Dillon are in Woodvale for the weekend; and Josiah went home with Christina for a couple of days. I wish we could see them sooner, but at least they'll be here for Christmas – and then for the following weekend when our families will all be home too. Jake and Stephanie are flying home in the morning, and are staying in an airport hotel tonight, but since we have the parade tomorrow; Michael and I won't be going to the airport to pick them up tomorrow. Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor are doing that instead.

Michael and I might not even see Jake and Stephanie much tomorrow, depending on when they'll be with his family and hers after they get home. We'll be busy with babysitting tomorrow night while Mom and Dad are out for their Christmas dinner at the Inn and party at Sheldon's; so we won't be able to hang out with them tomorrow night.

Whatever happens with that, it's going to be a very long day, and I would really like for the entertainment schedule to include some Michael and me time after the kids go to bed; so I'd better get started on my nap time to make sure I'm rested up for that. I definitely don't want to get to that part of the day and just fall asleep! ;^)

I'll let you know how that goes for us, but that's all I have for tonight; so let's do the Christmas music video pick and then I'll listen to it while drifting off into dreamland.

When it comes to Christmas classics, White Christmas is at or near the top of every holiday playlist. As I mentioned, Michael and I sang this song this afternoon for the Seniors' Christmas party, and while I think that we did pretty well with our duet; this will always be my personal all-time favorite version of this beautiful Christmas song.

White Christmas – Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye

May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Congratulations, Jake and Stephanie!

I sure didn't expect to be starting this update with the news that Jake and Stephanie got engaged last night before flying home today; but that did get their Christmas holiday off to an awesome start!

They're also going to get married next summer, and the main reason for that is because they've been accepted into foreign study programs at both of their colleges; and they want to be married before going to spend their junior year studying in Europe. I'll keep you posted for when they pick a date – though by the time you read this in your now; that'll be history anyway. That was definitely the top news story at the Inn tonight, and I'm sure it will be at church and around town tomorrow, but I only heard about that through Michael after he came over when he was finished helping out at the Inn tonight to help me with the babysitting. I did see Jake and Stephanie for a while this afternoon, but then they had plans to spend the evening with her parents while I needed to get home and start my babysitting duties. I'll get to that soon enough; but let's back up and start from the beginning of the day.

We didn't have time for Tai Chi because we needed to be at the school early to pack the bus for the trip to Maple Valley. Dad cooked up a batch of pancakes and a pack of breakfast sausages to make sure that we all had something warm to eat before heading out for the day; though it wasn't exactly cold out today. Michael came over to get me while I was still helping with the clean-up; we collected Rowen along the way; and were soon busy with packing the bus with music stands and the rest of the usual, larger band gear – along with our own instruments. I wouldn't dream of complaining about having a saxophone to haul around, since there are lots of band instruments that are a real pain to carry; but Rowen might be the smartest teen in our class for picking the flute. While I'm thinking about Rowen and music, I haven't mentioned it in my journal; but she's learning to play the piccolo now too, and while I haven't done it yet; I might start expanding my saxophone-playing options. I think that it'd be cool to be able to play the tenor and soprano saxophones as well as the alto sax; though I have no idea when I'll have time to do that.

This really was a perfect day for a Christmas parade if you're anyone in the parade or watching it – except possibly for Santa. He might have been a bit too warm – especially compared to when he's home at the North Pole! Mom and Dad took Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden to the parade; though I didn't get to spend any time with them until after the parade. We – the band – were on the road by a bit after eight-thirty; had a fun, bouncy little trip to Maple Valley; and then set up our flatbed trailer with our gear. The decorations had already been done by the sponsor and volunteers, and the chairs were provided; so we pretty much just needed to set up our stands and equipment before being ready to have a warm-up practice.

We had a little break between the set-up and that practice so that we could get drinks and a snack if we wanted; and it was fun doing that and mingling with some of the other teens that were in the parade too. There wasn't a lot of time for that socializing, and then we did our practice before having another short wait as the parade started and we waited for our turn to move out. I would love to have snow for Christmas, but I'm going to be honest and tell you that I really loved doing our Christmas parades this year in warmer weather. We didn't need winter coats, gloves, hats, or anything else; and it is a lot more fun to play wind instruments when the metal and various types of mouthpieces and reeds are not half-frozen.

I'm sure that everyone watching the parade had more fun today too; and there was definitely a bigger crowd this year. That made playing our music more fun, and there was a lot of singing along happening too as we mostly played the usual Christmas classics that are geared for the kids and families. Mom and Dad didn't have the only group at the parade from Witch Falls, and it was great to be able to play for them too; but my favorite part of the parade was the little cameo moment we had while passing my family. That doesn't last long even at the slow parade speed, so it wasn't until after the parade that Michael and I got to play with Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. We had to help pack the bus again first too; but then we were all set free for an hour or so to enjoy the lunchtime events. Tim had hitched a ride to the parade because Landry's was lending some equipment for the floats. Rowen had met up with him by then and decided to do their own thing, so Michael and I met up with my family; we all grabbed some food for lunch; and then we wandered around to check out the booths and little shows that were going on. We didn't try to get in line to see Santa, because that was a ridiculously long line – and we'd already done the visit with Santa at the Mall anyway. Mom and Dad did check to see how busy Santa was before heading home – after Michael and I were on the bus and heading out of town; but the line-up had still been very long and they didn't stay half the afternoon just to get thirty seconds with Santa.

They got home before I did, but that's because Michael and I helped with getting the bus unloaded and everything put away before going on to the Inn. That was when I did my little visit with Jake and Stephanie – and Jacob, Miranda, and Rebecca – before moving on to my babysitting duties. Michael needed to stay and help out at the Inn because of the dinner that Mom and Dad were going to with all of my hometown aunts and uncles and most of their friends. That's why I had Rowen and Tim with me to help out with the kids until Michael was done, and while they'd done their own thing while I'd been busy with Michael; they came over to my house in time to help out with getting dinner ready for our little gang of kids.

In addition to Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; we only had Zack and Leah for the night while Sebastian and Caleb went along with their Moms to the dinner at the Inn before either getting grandparent support for the Sheldon's part of the night or, in Caleb's case, going home after dinner with his worn-out parents. I didn't find out about that until later, and we would have been happy to take Caleb too, but he is just over a week old; so I wasn't surprised that Aunt Grace isn't ready for that quite yet.

We were busy enough with six kids, and getting them fed was the first main event of our adventures in babysitting tonight. Cooking up frozen pizzas and pub-style chicken wings was easy enough, and not too terribly messy – even for Zack. Olde Bakery Christmas cookies worked out pretty well too; and then I took care of the clean-up while Rowen and Tim took the kids upstairs and kept them entertained. Once I caught up with them, it was time for the first Christmas show of the night. Ehlana and Naomi wanted to start out with Sofia the First; we followed that up with Doc McStuffins; and then Michael joined us in time for Barbie in A Perfect Christmas.

That wasn't exactly a trio of choices that any of the guys would have picked; but they survived and had fun anyway – even if that was partly through joking around and teasing us about having a Christmas chick flick night. I don't know if we'll get the chance to do it, but all of that joking has me very tempted to do a real chick flick night next weekend and inviting Tim and Rowen. If he had a problem with Sofia, Doc, and Barbie; I'm sure he'd have lots to say about a night of Hallmark Christmas movies.

Moving along, Zack and Leah were both sleeping before the end of the Barbie movie and had been moved into my bed. Mandy curled up with them and watched over them while Michael and I dealt with getting Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden ready for bed and tucked in for the night; and Rowen and Tim found something to do to keep entertained while we were doing that. Details for that are not required; but I'm sure they had more fun than we did – even though doing the bedtime routine with my brother and sister is always entertaining too. Rowen and Tim weren't staying with us for long after that, so instead of watching another movie when Michael and I got back to the lounge; we just watched some YouTube Christmas music videos while having a little chat. They stayed for a half-hour or so; and then Rowen took Tim home with her for some alone time.

Michael and I didn't have a problem with that part of their plans for the night because it meant that we got to have some alone time too. With six kids in the house, that wasn't a scorching-hot make-out session; but we did have fun as we played and didn't watch the movie that wasn't the only thing I turned on in the lounge tonight. ;^)

That made for a really great end to our busy day – though our night isn't quite over as I write this. Michael's spending the night, so we're both getting changed while taking washroom breaks and checking in on the kids. Mom and Dad should be home in a half-hour or so; though I'm not sure exactly when because Dad is one of the designated drivers this weekend. I'm writing this now because I wanted to do my email check while I had a little time to do that too; and then I'll be able to go straight off to sleep after doing the post-party report with Mom and Dad.

Okay, that's not totally true. I'm seriously considering falling asleep in the lounge with Michael and hoping that Mom and Dad will just tuck us in and leave us there for the night. I know, we're only thirteen and fourteen, but you can't blame us for wanting to enjoy a little extended cuddle time now and then – and going to sleep and waking up in Michael's arms is wonderful. I'm sure that most adults reading this in the future can relate – though hopefully not with Michael specifically. I'm planning on keeping that kind of thing exclusively between us forever.

Michael should be back upstairs any minute now, so I'd better wrap this up and finish getting ready for our sofa sleepover – I mean for bed. ;^)

This little bit of Christmas fun is my video pick for tonight because Michael and Tim thought it was funny when we ran across it during our little YouTube music video time earlier. It's cute; so I thought it was worth sharing – even if it doesn't make it into the list of future Christmas classics in whenever your now is.

Christmas Convoy – Paul Brandt

May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

I got to spend the day with Michael and his family; and that started out great with my morning wake-up call – or to be more accurate; 'our' wake-up call.

That's right, my plan worked perfectly; and I got to do another sofa sleepover with Michael. There are a couple of things that you should keep in mind about that, with the first being that I can't ever fool my Mom about anything; and second, Michael wasn't asleep yet when Mom and Dad got home – he got permission to stay there with me before going into nap mode too. I didn't 'see' that one coming, if you know what I mean, but it worked; so I'm good with the results.

Our wake-up call came from Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. That was fun, and so was the few minutes we had after they ran off to say good morning in a non-verbal sort of way before we needed to hurry up and get ready for Tai Chi. We did have a little time to do that while Mom and Dad were busy with Zack and Leah; but then we did our exercises – out by the river, thanks to the still-warm weather – while our two youngest guests played together on one of the benches and watched us work through our forms. Michael and I hit the showers right after that – separately – and got ready for church while Mom and Dad took turns keeping track of the six kids and cooking breakfast.

We were given first shot at bathroom time because we needed to get over to Michael's house for breakfast. I would have stayed at home to help Mom and Dad instead, but they'd already arranged for extra morning help so that I could go with Michael to the extra-special breakfast that Jacob and Miranda had set up for Jake and Stephanie. Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam were already there by the time that Michael and I were ready to leave; so we got teased about our sofa sleepover for a while before heading out – and right into another round of razzing and jokes once we got to Michael's house. Mom had been nice enough to let Miranda know about our sleepover and send a picture; and Jake was especially happy to razz Michael about it.

I'm fairly sure that Jake just wishes that he'd thought about doing sofa sleepovers with Stephanie when he was thirteen or fourteen – though if they were much older than Michael and I are now when they did their first co-ed camping adventure or sneaking into bedrooms at night; I'd be very surprised.

Fortunately for us, everyone at the breakfast was more interested in talking about Jake and Stephanie than sofa sleepovers; and weddings, European college adventures and final exams were all on the chat topic list. We also had Stephanie's parents and Lucas with us for breakfast – and Lucas had stayed at Michael's house overnight. I didn't mention this in my report yesterday, but Lucas and Rebecca were part of a babysitting team at the Bassett's house. The man difference for them was that their kids were mostly older; and Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia were only allowed to have one friend each stay with them overnight while the rest of the kids were picked up after the party at Sheldon's.

Breakfast was amazing, and for that; I'm talking about the food. Just in case you're reading this in the future while having a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast, I won't add in all of the details that would definitely make your food seem tasteless by comparison; but I will say that Jacob went all-out today and I'm really glad that I got to be there to enjoy it. The conversation and family time was awesome too, and while you get used to being apart when needed; that just makes being back together again that much better.

For the final exam part of the chat time, I'm sure that nobody reading this will be surprised to find out that Jake and Stephanie are top students in their classes and aced them. Jake might feel as though Michael and Rebecca are a lot smarter than he is because they both do better in high school than he did; but he was basically a straight-A student too even if there weren't very many 'pluses' to go along with those A's.

We didn't get into a lot of details about the wedding, since Miranda and Samantha haven't even had a chance to talk about it with Pastor John yet; but it will definitely be happening next summer before Jake and Stephanie need to leave for school in Europe – and hopefully in time for them to have a week or two for a honeymoon too before starting classes. Since they'll be back at school until May, that's going to mean that they'll need a lot of help from home to do all of the work; but I'm sure that Miranda and Samantha will have all of the help they need for that – including from Rebecca and me.

I'll keep you posted on wedding news as it comes in.

It's funny to think that Michael will soon have a sibling wedding in his family while it's a safe bet that I'll be the first kid married in my family – unless Ethan or Ehlana plan on getting married in time for Kindergarten or ahead of some other academic milestone – like the start of middle or high school. Jake and Stephanie will also be out of their teens this coming spring too while the twins will still be in the single-digit age group for quite a while. They might even still be in that group at the same time as Jake and Stephanie's kids – not that I'm trying to rush Jake and Stephanie into that club! ;^)

Finally, on the European college information front, Jake and Stephanie don't have all of the details yet, but they do know that they'll study for one semester in Italy and one in Spain. Jake's program there will be very hands-on, working with some of the top chefs in Europe. Stephanie's program won't be nearly as exciting; but she will get a lot of exposure to international accounting practices and standards that could come in very handy for our family business. Isn't that convenient for all of us?

Again, I'll include more details as they come in – though it'll be months before Jake and Stephanie have their itinerary, class schedules, and travel and housing plans worked out. On the housing part of that, it sounds as though being married is going to make a big difference for that – and they may not have been able to match up their programs if not for that.

I should move this along; though there really isn't all that much to add to this update. We enjoyed that amazing breakfast, Michael and I were on the expanded clean-up crew that included Stephanie's parents, Rebecca, and Lucas; and then we all went to church. The only news there is that we – the kids and teens – spent our Sunday school time doing final prep work for the Christmas concert next Sunday night; and Jake and Stephanie were picked by Pastor John and Stacey to join them for the meet the Pastor time after the service so that everyone could congratulate them on their engagement and selection for the overseas study programs next year. I never really thought about the second part of that as being a big deal; but I guess it really doesn't happen very often in Witch Falls – even if many teens do travel a bit during their college years.

The service went long today, and while Jake and Stephanie stayed for quite a while, Michael, Rebecca, and I all went to the Inn right after Sunday school to help with the prep work for the lunch rush. That's where I stayed all day through until the Inn closed for the night – except for our afternoon break when Michael and I picked up snacks at the Emporium and just sat near the statue by the falls and did pretty much nothing except enjoy the time off of our feet. That maybe doesn't sound like much fun, but it really was – and that was mostly because the whole place seemed more alive and lively with Jake and Stephanie there to help with the entertainment.

It definitely seems quiet here at home as I'm cuddling with Mandy and doing my nightly computing. I didn't come straight to bed after getting home – there was a Magi lesson with Mom, and a bedtime chat with Ethan and Ehlana when I tucked them in for the night before I came up to my room. That was followed up with a soak in my Jacuzzi that I enjoyed without any multi-tasking; and then I climbed into bed with Mandy once I was changed and ready for this last bit of wind-down time.

The language studies are done; Mom didn't give me any archive homework; and it only took me ten minutes to do my family business work. That works for me, since it's already been a very long day; and getting to sleep before midnight again will help me to recharge and be ready for what is going to be a very busy week. I haven't even written anything about what my family was doing all day, but part of the being busy next week will be because Dad will be in the city. He worked in the office most of the afternoon and evening to get ready for that, and just wrapped that up a little while ago to go to bed. No, Mom and Dad are not sleeping, but let's not go there or I'll be wishing that Michael and I were doing another sofa sleepover tonight!

We really are going to have a busy week, and in addition to Dad being away; Mom is going to the city for a sleepover on Tuesday night – mostly so that she and Dad can do a Christmas dinner with the Malloys. Violet, Dillon, Josiah, and Christina will all be home tomorrow sometime; Michael and I are going to be helping out more at the Inn because they have Christmas dinners booked pretty much every night between now and Christmas Eve day. Miranda and Jacob won't be taking full days off for the next few weeks – though they don't plan on working all day on Monday or Tuesday this week – just during lunch and dinner as needed. Add in the Christmas pageant on Thursday, our music practices on Tuesday, and the fact that our Christmas vacation starts on Friday afternoon; and it's going to be non-stop action all week.

That does remind me that I need to talk to Michael, Tim, and Rowen about a sleepover this Friday night so that we can kick off those holidays with some teen fun – though I should probably talk to Mom and Dad about that in the morning before booking anything at our house. They might prefer not to have a house full of kids and teens after spending most of a week apart. It's just harder to plan things like that during holidays at any other houses when the parents are all busy with work at their stores or the Inn.

Dad is going to be leaving early in the morning, and I want to be awake to seen him off; so I guess that's all I have for tonight – except for picking the Christmas music video.

This is one of those songs that isn't really about Christmas at all; but makes it onto a lot of Christmas favorites lists anyway – including mine.

Angels Among Us - Alabama

May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, December 15, 2014

We started our day with the early morning wake-up to see Dad off on his way to the city, and while we're going to miss him while he's away; my strongest thoughts while we were doing that were about how little time I actually spent with Dad over this past week while we were both busy with other things. It's funny how it sometimes takes saying goodbye to someone to pay attention to things like that; though I should also be honest and suggest that not much could change with that even if we thought about it all of the time. I'm sure that most people can relate.

The goodbye breakfast visit with Dad was fun, though, and so was the cuddle time with Mom and the twins when we had our little nap before needing to get up and going again. Michael came over for Tai Chi, but then went home again to have breakfast with his family; and we had a quiet rest of the morning before I went to meet up with him, Rowen, and Rebecca to walk to school while Mom took Ethan and Ehlana in tow and headed for the lab.

Now that we're down to just days before the Christmas break, it's mostly time for fun at school. Michael and I have two or three music practices a day to deal with for the younger kids for the first few days this week plus the pageant on Thursday afternoon; and we're mostly just doing games, movies, or other fun projects during the rest of the time each day. While that kept us entertained all day, there wasn't really anything newsworthy to report from any of that; so I'll move right along to the post-school part of the report.

For Michael and I, that started out with helping out at the Inn for a few hours after school. The Christmas dinner parties are going on every day now – and some lunches too; so the Inn is much busier than usual. Since Monday and Tuesday are two of the days when a lot of the staff get their days off after working all weekend; that makes it tough to cover the extra work – which is why Jacob, Miranda, Jake, and Stephanie were all working too. Rebecca was busy with a basketball game tonight, and I feel bad that we haven't gotten to one of her games yet; but the timing of her games so far just isn't working with my schedule so far.

We did get to see Violet and Dillon for a little while because they'd stopped in at the Inn to congratulate Jake and Stephanie on their engagement and have a little visit with them before going to have dinner with Dillon's family. They're staying here at our house tonight so that they could spend some time with Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and me before Mom goes to the city tomorrow; but I'll get to that part of my update in a minute. They also stopped in Crystal Springs and had lunch with Dad on their way here form Woodvale; so they've already packed a lot of travel and visiting into their holiday so far.

Michael and I worked at the Inn through until all of the prep work for the night was done and all of the dinner parties meals were delivered and then we had our own meal before moving on to my house to meet up with Rowen and Tim for a music practice. Tim only needed to practice our pageant song with us, and then he played video games with Ethan and Ehlana while Michael, Rowen, and I practiced both our band songs for the pageant and music for the Christmas concert at the church on Sunday night. Rowen and Tim are both involved with that through the skits side of the program; but Rowen was also asked to add a bit of flute music here and there too. Since we're doing the full dress rehearsal tomorrow night; Michael and I wanted to make sure that we're ready for that too. We did our homework too, but it could barely be called work; and didn't take long to finish.

Michael did a bit of gaming with Tim and Ethan after we finished our music practices, but they didn't do that for long because Violet and Dillon came over and we all went downstairs to spend some time with them. Rowen and Tim left first, and Michael stayed until a bit after ten; but then we all pretty much called it a night after that anyway. The last highlight of my day was a half-hour long girl chat with Violet and Ehlana while Ehlana was being tucked in for the night; and then I came up to my room and left Mom alone with Violet and Dillon for a last little visit before they all turned in for the night too.

Violet and Dillon are in Violet's usual room next to mine as I write this; but that doesn't seem strange to me anymore – and they'll be staying together throughout the holidays at our house, his, or while they're visiting in Woodvale. I don't know what they'll do next summer; but I am sure they'll figure out a way to be together – probably either here or at Dillon's house. I'll hope for the 'here' on that one; but we'll see what happens.

I've done my usual bedtime computing; took care of a bit of family business work; and didn't have to worry about archive homework because Mom skipped my lesson tonight. That's pretty much it for the news for today; so let's do the Christmas music video pick and then call it a night.

With the pageant coming up on Thursday, I'm going to include some of the songs the kids will be singing; so let's start that out with one that's going to be very cute – and probably an audience favorite. The arrangement we're doing is a bit different than the video from the Christmas show, but we do have the boys and girls taking the parts of the song that Holly and Hal sing; they're going to use the video on the big screen in the background; and the kids will all have moose antlers. Michael and I will lead the boys and girls respectively as well as playing; but we'll try to keep as quiet as we can while also still keeping the kids on-track for the song. Hopefully it'll be as entertaining as I think it is during our practices.

When You Dream – Holly and Hal Moose

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The cold is back this morning, and while I didn't mention the weather at all in my update yesterday; it's a little bit funny that it was warmer and rainy yesterday but freezing and sunny today. I haven't spent much time outdoors yesterday or today, so that hasn't mattered much anyway; but then I only mention it tonight because the cool-down has me thinking about Christmas – and the probability that we won't be getting to have a white Christmas this year. The forecast isn't looking good for that right now, but there's still time for that to change. Let's hope that the weather experts are wrong on the extended predictions!

My day started out with Tai Chi; Michael stayed to have breakfast with us – and Violet and Dillon – and then he went home in time for both of us to get ready for school. When I did head out this morning, I had a feeling of being off in my own little world as I left; mostly because Violet and Dillon went along with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana to the lab. I hadn't even thought about the fact that they can do some work there over the holidays too – just as Jake and Stephanie are helping out at the Inn; but Ehlana is very excited to have Dillon here to play with her at the lab – especially since Uncle Adam is spending a little less time there while Uncle Mark is still spending extra time at home with Aunt Grace and Caleb.

Mom was only spending the morning at the lab because she left for the city shortly after lunch. The twins were dropped off at KidZone for the afternoon; and they're staying with Aiden and Naomi tonight while I'm here at Michael's house. While I'm thinking about that, we have approval for our Friday night sleepover now too; Ethan and Ehlana will have their best friends staying with us; and I'll have Michael, Tim, and Rowen with me. Lucas and Rebecca have an invitation, but Lucas doesn't think that'll happen because he'll be busy working with his father this weekend. I didn't invite Jenny and Lance; but that's only because I knew they already had other plans.

While I'm on that train of thought, I should mention that Rowen and I aren't spending much time with Jenny or the other cheerleaders anymore – just as Michael and Tim don't hang out with the football guys all of the time either. That's not a surprise to me, since the older teens in particular are back to hanging out with their usual groups of friends; but it does mean that we get our daily gossip from other sources most of the time now. Jenny prefers hanging out with the older girls too whenever she can; so we don't even see her that much when we're spending time with Rebecca and Lucas – though they're also busy with the girls' basketball gang right now too.

It isn't as though Michael and I – and Rowen and Tim – haven't moved on too. We have the band group and our own usual gang of classmates; but I still miss spending that extra time with Jenny, Rebecca, and some of the other friends we'd gotten closer to during football season. I know – add it to my long list of minor regrets over people that I don't get to do things with often enough. I wonder if that would really change at all even if I could keep the entire town in a time phase twenty-four-seven; or whether that would just end up giving me a longer list?

Time is moving along for me right now, and I want to get to sleep soon; so let's move this along a bit. It was all-Christmas, all-day at school. Michael and I had more practices with the kids; and the rest of the class time was filled with holiday fun instead of school work. The best parts of the day were when we played with the younger kids; though we kept entertained all day – including during band practice after school as we got ready for that part of our Christmas pageant.

Michael, Rebecca, and I went to help out at the Inn after our band and basketball practices; that kept us busy for a couple of hours; and then we needed to get to the church for the dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert on Sunday night. All of the teens involved in the entire program were there for that; and it was a wild couple of hours of work and play as Stacey and her other volunteers guided us through the entire program. Yes, that took longer than the show will be; but there were lots of pauses between scenes as we received our last instructions – and quite a few 'second takes' too. I won't include the details here; since I'll do the full concert report with my journal update on Sunday night. I do think that we're looking pretty good right now, though; and the little glitches will be ironed out by then – or they'll just add character to the show!

Michael and I stopped in at my house after that practice so that I could pick up my overnight bag – mostly because I hadn't wanted to haul it around all day. We were back at his house before his parents, Jake, and Stephanie got home, but Rebecca was there; and we all sat down and took care of the bit of holiday homework we'd been given – which was really just more play time pretending to be homework. We even had time to make up a bedtime snack and drinks for everyone and have it ready by the time the rest of our little gang got home from the Inn.

That was a fun little bedtime visit; though not very long because Michael's parents need to be up early for their normal Wednesday work day. Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca all went up to bed shortly after that too, and though they had different motivations for doing that; Michael and I were very okay with getting some alone time. We sort-of-kinda-didn't watch a Christmas movie and spent some quality time making out; and then we came up to our rooms and got ready for bed too at a bit after eleven-thirty.

I've blasted through my bedtime computing, and if I hurry; being in nap mode will happen before midnight. There isn't any news from Mom and Dad or Ethan and Ehlana tonight, so I'll add any news from them with the next update – though if you want the best parts of that night away from the kids news for my parents; those details will need to be found somewhere else. I'll likely only hear about the dinner with the Malloys; and I'm okay with not needing to know the hotel sleepover details!

I probably shouldn't have taken my train of thought down that particular track when Michael is in a room just down the hall and Jake and Stephanie are together in his room; so let's do the Christmas music video part of the report and then I'm going somewhere that Michael and I can be together for the rest of the night – in dreamland.

Here's another of the songs we'll be helping the kids out with for the Christmas pageant; and it continues to be a holiday favorite with the kids – just as the movie is for kids of all ages!

I Do Believe in Christmas from The Search for Santa Paws

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

I'm going to keep this update short and turn in early so that I'll be ready for a busy day tomorrow – and the Christmas pageant at school.

Michael and I started our day with a fairly entertaining good morning hug and kiss before getting around to the Tai Chi for two after seeing his parents off to the Inn. Jake and Stephanie didn't bother to get up early to have breakfast with Rebecca, Michael, and me; and were still in bed when we left for school. Now that I think about it; I didn't see them at all today; but that's because I didn't go to the Inn with Michael after school – and I haven't seen him since then either.

Instead of helping out there tonight; I went home and have spent the entire evening there. That choice was mostly because I haven't spent much time at all with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana this week; and with Michael, Rowen, and Tim all working their part-time jobs after-school, hanging out with them was an option.

The family-rated news from Crystal Springs included the latest news from the Malloys; how their dinner out went; and a few other details on either side of a rather large block of time when nothing at all apparently happened. That would be more believable if I hadn't overheard some parts of the un-redacted version that Mom shared with Aunt Leanne; but let's not go there. For me, the top news with Terry, Angela, and Valerie is about Angela's pregnancy. She's now just beginning her third trimester, and while the baby isn't due until March; that's making for a very entertaining Christmas holiday for all of them – especially with how Valerie is handling the impending arrival of a new baby brother. Mom said that Valerie is absolutely adorable, and while Angela told her that Valerie can be hot and cold over the whole baby thing; she was on her best behavior while at dinner last night.

Of course, that might have had something to do with the cool toys Mom and Dad had for her – including the gift that Ethan, Ehlana, Michael, and I sent her. That's generally a great way to keep a two-year old kid happy and entertained for a couple of hours.

I should also mention that Angela and her baby are doing just fine. Mom knows that for sure because she checked while they were together; and that's a handy talent to have when you want to make sure that the people you love the most are well. Yes, they have a family doctor at a good practice; but I doubt many places have the kind of medical care that we have in Witch Falls – and especially will when the clinic opens next summer! Okay, the fact that we have a small group of Magi Healers is a bonus; but you know what I mean.

Moving this along, I got most of the city trip story from Mom after school – and after she got back from the lab after spending a couple of hours there once she got back to town – and dropped off Aunt Leanne's fast food fix. Ethan and Ehlana spent the morning at Kid Zone again; and then they were at the lab too. They stayed there longer than Mom did; and got a ride home with Violet and Dillon after hanging out there with Uncle Adam and Dillon until it was nearly dinnertime while Violet did some work in the office for Aunt Grace. Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack came over for dinner too; so it was great to get to spend time with all of them tonight too. Aunt Leanne's pregnancy update is easy – she's doing great; and is already mostly done with her bouts of morning sickness. She still gets some early-morning queasiness; but it isn't anything that a few crackers and sips of water can't handle for her.

I skipped over the time I mostly spent with Mom, other than getting the travel update. I helped her out with some chores around the house; we cooked dinner; and mostly just enjoyed having the mother-daughter time that we don't get much of a chance for very often right now. That is another item on my wish-I-had-more-time-for list, but I won't complain about it either; since I did get to have Mom all to myself for the first nine years of my life. We both know that what we have now is way better!

Our dinner wasn't anything special, but the company and conversation was entertaining and the highlight of my day. Sorry, Michael; but that good morning kiss and the Tai Chi will have to settle for second-place on my list for today.

I guess that means we should work on that more often and see what we can do about winning that contest next time! ;^)

That totally has my train of thought off the rails. It's a good thing that we have another sleepover booked for Friday night!

I loved getting to spend the time with Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam, Zack, Violet, and Dillon; but then they all had other things to get to after we finished the kitchen clean-up. Mom had work to do in the office; so Ethan, Ehlana, and I came up to the lounge so that we could hang out together until bedtime. I did a music practice for the pageant tomorrow; we watched a couple of Christmas cartoons – this year's Christmas edition of Sofia the First and the Mike the Knight holiday episode.

So much for my plans for a short update, but I can't resist a little commentary hit on Disney and just how much they've changed over the years. I think that it's ridiculous that Sofia the First celebrates Wasalia Day instead of Christmas. Disney allowed her to celebrate Halloween, with all of the dark imagery and history that goes with it; yet it's apparently politically incorrect to have her celebrate Christmas. No, they haven't done that with all of their kids' shows; but that doesn't make this instance any less silly – especially when their 'holiday' also has decorated trees; candle-lighting ceremony; feasts; gifts; carols; and the rest of it.

Okay, I feel better now! ;^)

Ethan, Ehlana, and I did a bedtime snack and chat with Mom; I tucked them in for the night; and then it was Jacuzzi time for me – again without any multi-tasking. It's still very early for me compared to what my normal has been for bedtime work this fall; but there wasn't any email news or much in the way of family business work to deal with so it'll be nice to get a solid eight hours of down-time tonight. With the pageant, work at the Inn, and game night; it's going to be a very full day tomorrow – and then we'll basically be starting our Christmas holiday on Friday – once we get through our play day and parties at school. Let's do the Christmas song video pick for tonight; and then I am out of here and off to dreamland to hang out with a certain boy we know and love.

It's no surprise that one of the kid favorites this year is this song, from the Disney hit, Frozen. This isn't the arrangement that we're using, and the lyrics were played with to make it more fun for the kids; but I like the clip from the movie too.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman – from Frozen

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

The school Christmas pageant became one of my favorite events of the holidays last year when Michael and I did our first duet and played for the younger kids; and we had even more fun with all of that today – and it was just as special for me.

Before I get to that, though; I should probably start this update with the snow report.

The fluffy white stuff won't be staying around until Christmas, but it did make our Christmas show today feel more Christmassy. It also gave us more work to do this morning because we woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground that needed to be cleared from the driveways, sidewalks, and roads. That's why Tai Chi was cancelled this morning in favor of some outdoor work and fun. That was a total team effort, and while we donated the garden tractor and snow blower; Jake actually took care of running it and clearing driveways and the sidewalk between our house and his while Michael, Rebecca, and I were on shovel duty for the sidewalks and porches at our houses. Ethan and Ehlana came out to play for a while too; we had a snowball fight; and built a modest little pair of snow twins too before heading inside to our own houses to have breakfast and get ready for school, work, or other activities.

That made for a fun start to our day, and the entertainment continued all morning as Michael and I split our time between doing music warm-ups with the kids we played guitar and keyboard for this afternoon and helping out with the set-up in the gym for the pageant. We had time for one last, quick run-through of our duet song with Rowen and Tim too shortly before lunchtime; so we were ready for the break at lunchtime before needing to move on to the gym and the big show.

The snow had pretty much ended by then, and had just been very light for most of the morning; so the weather didn't get in the way of a really good turnout for the pageant. Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana were there with our usual group of family and friends – and Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah came with Caleb and Sebastian too. The program started at a few minutes after one, and after our teen 'hosts' opened with a little Christmas comedy; we got right into the program. Michael and I weren't involved in the first act; but the 'class' performances were done in order beginning with the Kindergarten kids; so we were up second with them; and then with the other classes as their songs or skits were mixed into the program with the other performances. While I loved all of the songs we did with the kids, and our band performance; I'm sure you won't be surprised to find out that my duet with Michael that Rowen and Tim helped us out with was my favorite part of the afternoon.

That's why I'm adding my Christmas music video clip into my update here, and while our version was a bit different; I'm sure that we did an amazing job too. I got that same perfect moment feeling while Michael and I sang it; we made a lot of girls cry; and had those seconds of hushed audience silence before the applause that you know means that you did a great job. I'll add in the lyrics too, along with which parts Michael and I took for our solo parts of the duet, so when you listen to the song clip; just imagine it as a boy-girl duet. Tim did an awesome job as narrator; and Rowen's flute arrangement was soft, light, and beautiful.

It Could Happen Again – Collin Raye

Tim's Narration:

"One frozen night in 1914,  
at the height of WWI,  
the unthinkable happened.  
All along the entire western front,  
the British and German soldiers  
lay down their weapons  
in an unofficial cease fire  
to celebrate Christmas Eve together.  
They exchanged gifts  
and saw each other as brothers.  
And that piece lasted for two more days,  
when they were ordered back to battle.  
In those few days, though,  
men remembered the true meaning of Christmas  
amongst the devastation,  
and it's a story that should never be forgotten..."

Michael:  
Through the smoke-filled night  
Silence rolls from both sides  
Across a bloody battlefield  
It was a cold Christmas Eve  
In 1914  
For those who were there it seemed unreal

Cassie:  
As time was still the Spirit moved the soldiers  
To lay down their arms  
Raise their voice in song  
And pretend for awhile  
The war was over

Michael – melody; Cassie – harmony:  
If it could happen then,  
It could happen again  
A world torn apart  
Could join hands and hearts  
To celebrate His birth  
And peace on this Earth  
If for one magic night  
We could find again a reason not to fight  
Maybe there's a chance ..  
This time it might last

Cassie:  
As opposing sides approached  
Through broken words they spoke  
It wasn't long before they felt at ease  
They shared their cigarettes  
What they had they used as gifts  
They didn't feel like enemies.

Michael:  
With candles lit,  
They stood shoulder to shoulder  
And on that field they found  
True common ground  
And as they prayed  
They dreamed the war was over

Cassie – melody; Michael – harmony:  
If it could happen then,  
It could happen again  
A world torn apart  
Could join hands and hearts  
To celebrate His birth  
And peace on this Earth  
If for one magic night  
We could find again a reason not to fight  
Maybe there's a chance ..  
This time it might last

Michael – a cappella:  
If it could happen then,

Cassie – a cappella:  
It could happen again.

For us, the little bit of history lesson in the song was a bonus, but from what we were told later; that message for the kids and teens was very important to quite a few of the grandparents and seniors. I won't drag that part of my report out, though, and while our song was one of the highlights of the pageant; nearly every kid and teen had a chance to shine – either as part of a group or with their own special contributions. The most important thing about the pageant is that we all had a really great afternoon filled with music, love, and a lot of Christmas fun and cheer.

Michael and I were not on the post-pageant clean-up crew; mostly because we were politely told that we'd done enough for the day – and because some of our teachers knew that Michael's parents needed our help at the Inn more than they needed help with packing up chairs and the rest of the gear. I ran home first to get changed and freshened up after hours of busy and music; but then I spent the next six hours or so at the Inn. Helping out with the dinner prep-work was more fun than the cleaning that followed the main dinner rush; but this was the quietest dinner rush of the week – even though most of the diners stayed for the last game night of the year too.

I had a lot of fun with Michael and Rebecca while we worked; though some of the highlights of our kitchen time came from Miranda and Stephanie passing on diner comments about our duet – and the ongoing jokes and razzing about that from Jake. That was directed at Michael more often than me; but Michael was okay with that – Jake is proud of his little brother even if he has a back-handed way of showing it.

There isn't much else to add for the dinnertime part of my day, and while it wasn't the busiest night of the week; we were still kept busy – and only took quick breaks to have our own meals. The teen conversation in the kitchen was mostly about plans for the first weekend of our Christmas holidays, and though fun with family and friends was the biggest part of those chats; the fun parts of the holidays are still going to happen around the work – whether that's at the Inn, home, or elsewhere. That's just the way it is when you have jobs that are busiest during holidays and weekends.

Okay, I don't technically have a job doing that; but I will be helping out if for no other reason than I want to spend the time with my boyfriend while he's busy anyway.

We didn't help out with the game night set up this week; and didn't win the junior championship; but Michael and I did have fun playing the games and hanging out with our families and friends. Mom and Miranda did win the senior championship, so Miranda is very happy to get to hold that title over the holidays again this year – and into the New Year. I'm beginning to suspect that her friends are helping her out with that a bit by not trying to play their best – or even fudging their numbers so that Miranda has a better chance of winning this particular championship; but I'll probably need another year or two of data before being able to statistically prove that. The rest of the top-ten scores were lower than last year, and there was a bigger margin of victory; so there's a good chance that I'm not going to be wrong about that. I'll keep you posted on how that works out next year.

Because we were doing our Christmas game night, we were at the Inn a bit longer than usual; and I did stay to help with the clean-up tonight. That wasn't just to be able to walk home with Michael and share a better goodnight kiss with him that we generally can manage at the Inn; but that was a nice bonus!

I didn't stay at his house, though, and while we don't exactly have a tough day ahead of us at school tomorrow; we did want to rest up so we'll be ready for our sleepover plans tomorrow night. Going straight to bed wasn't an option for me when I got home; but only because Mom did a Magi lesson with me while Ethan and Ehlana wrote another final exam. Mom didn't want to stay up half the night either, though; which is why my lesson included a time-phase as part of some multi-tasking that also allowed the twins to write those exams without using up a lot of 'real' time to do that. It took longer to get them ready for bed and tuck them in; but then that was more fun for all of us too.

There's been a lot going on today around here that I haven't covered in this update; but I won't be able to get to everything. Violet and Dillon are at his house again tonight; and I think they'll be there most of the time they're here – though they might stay with us while Violet's family is here for the weekend after Christmas. I know through Jake and Stephanie that they've spent some time with their best friends – and with Josiah and Christina – during the days; but have mostly just been at Dillon's house at night to hang out with his parents, Isabelle, and Andrew. I should do a college friends update sometime soon; but let's not do that tonight. I'd really rather just wrap this up and head off to sleep now.

After tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night, I came up here to my room; got ready for bed; and then snuggled in for the night with Mandy and my computer. The usual nightly computing hasn't taken too long; though I have had some family business work to deal with – little updates for a half-dozen different jobs and projects. I didn't want to be up late doing any of that either; so I time-phased again while taking care of those jobs – even though I needed to trade that off with being even more tired out after using up a fair bit of energy during my lesson. There weren't any other email from friends or family that need mentioning here; though I have been kept mostly up-to-date with holiday plans for my cousins and their families – especially since they won't be here for Christmas Day this year. We don't have family Christmas plans for this weekend; but almost all of my cousins outside of Witch Falls do. While I do sometimes wonder what that'd be like; I'm also glad that our family Christmases are always here – and that we don't need to do a lot of travelling to get to those family events. Yes, that always means more work to get ready for hosting those events and visits; but I'm going to keep enjoying the hometown life for as long as I can after our years of hiding and moving around the country.

I don't want to go off to sleep thinking about that, but I don't have anything else to add tonight; so I'm just going to think happy thoughts about our plans for tomorrow night and, hopefully, spend some quality time dreaming about that for the rest of the night – with Michael and me in starring roles for that dreamland show!

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, December 19, 2014

We're free! Well, we're at least free from school for a couple of weeks; and our holiday has started off great so far – both with our play day and parties at school and the sleepover we're having at my house tonight.

The school update for today is easy. We watched a movie; played; had classroom Christmas parties; and then got set free early to get started on our holiday while the teachers and staff had their own Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, but there isn't anything newsworthy to report; so let's move on; and get to the first night of our holiday part of this update.

Michael, Rowen, and Tim all went home first to pick up overnight bags before coming over to my house, and they all stopped in to check in with parents at work too; so I had time for a little visit with Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden before they arrived. We traded the daily reports, and though the top news story of the day for them didn't even get talked about with Naomi and Aiden there; I will record my congratulations here for Ethan and Ehlana. They've finished their second year of college; and will be moving on to their junior year in January. It's a bit funny that they'll now be half a year ahead of Violet, Dillon, and the rest of our favorite sophomores; but they do have the advantage of working at their own pace – which is particularly handy when your pace is a lot faster than it is for most people.

And here I am; puttering along in Grade Nine. I feel so mediocre! ;^)

Mom didn't ask for a lot of help from us after my friends joined us; but we did keep the four younger kids with us while she did some work and cooked dinner for nine. She wasn't doing a dinner and a movie night this week, since everyone has a lot on the go this weekend; but she was good with having a quiet night for herself – and for Dad once he got home too. We, the kids and teens, were all ready to have a fun night, though; and we played or watched movies while hanging out together all evening. Mom mostly did her own thing except for when we had dinner and for an hour or so after Dad got home – at least when it came to the rest of us. They went to bed when the twins and their friends did; but sleeping was not at the top of their bedtime to-do list.

Enough said there – let's move along.

Pre-dinner play included some outdoor snow time. It wasn't that much above freezing today, so it hasn't started to melt much; but it will over the next few days – and should be gone before Christmas. That's the main reason why we went out to play today – and because Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden wanted us to do that with them until it started getting dark. After having a snowball fight; running around the yard pulling the kids in sleds; and making snow angels, we went inside to warm up with cups of hot chocolate while playing video games in the lounge until dinner was ready. Dinner was an easy pizza and wings meal; we – the teens – took care of the clean-up; and then the boys played video games for a while longer until we all got comfortable and watched our first Christmas show.

There was an intermission when Dad got home; He and Mom watched a few, classic Christmas cartoons with us; and then it was time for the non-teens to go to bed for the night. Ethan, Ehlana and their friends didn't go right off to sleep either; but I'm also pretty sure they weren't doing roommate swaps or anything either.

Give them a few years before they'll be thinking much about things like that! ;^)

This is off-topic, but that does have me thinking about some of our friends and their weekend plans. Rebecca and Lucas were invited to stay with us tonight; but Rebecca's staying out at the farm tonight instead for her day off from the Inn – mostly because Lucas couldn't get the morning off tomorrow because he needs to help his father all weekend as they get ready for the holidays on the farm. No, they're not setting up a manger just in case of unexpected guests – they just do a lot of prep work so that they only have to do the minimum chores on the holidays to keep the animals fed and comfortable. They don't keep a lot of livestock; but most farm families in our area are mostly self-sufficient when it comes to putting meat, eggs, and dairy on the table as well as the grains and veggies. Jenny and Lance were invited too; but they already had other plans with his family and friends this weekend. The party scene in Maple Valley is apparently way more exciting than movie and sleepover nights here.

Our play time might not be party-rated fun; but we've had a great day and I was very happy to have the teen cuddle and movies time after Mom and Dad went to bed. We didn't have a curfew; and staying up late was an option. Watching more action-packed Christmas movies was an option too, and since the boys were so good about the kids shows earlier; it was their choice for the three movies we watched during the rest of the night. You probably don't need to guess that a Die Hard movie was at the top of the list; and they went with number two – Christmas with terrorists at the airport. We followed that up with the comically-bad SyFy channel's Twelve Disasters of Christmas because Tim wanted to watch it ahead of the new Christmas movie they have coming out tomorrow – Christmas Icetastrophe. I'm sure that will soon be a classic in the SyFy original movie genre, and will end up watching it with Michael sometime soon; but I'm also not going out of my way to put it on my schedule – unless some quality alone time with Michael just happens to match up with the show time.

Our final late, late movie was Scrooged, and while it might not make many top-ten lists for versions of a Christmas Carol; I still like it a lot. Having a few good excuses to hang on to Michael a bit tighter during the scary parts is good; and the comedy bits are pretty good too – even if most of the jokes are getting a bit dated. Then again, you could say the same thing about the jokes in the original story too. By then, all four of us were ready to really just be quiet, enjoy the cuddle time, and watch the show; and it really was late by the time Michael and I took care of the kitchen end of the snacks and drinks clean-up and then we did our goodnight hugs and kisses in his room on the second floor while Rowen and Tim were doing the same in the lounge.

I was back in my room before Rowen and Tim broke up their mini make-out session on the sofa, but I'd closed the doors to the lounge first; and took my turn in the bathroom while waiting for Rowen. We had a quick little girl chat once we were both in bed with Mandy; but Rowen fell asleep fairly quickly while I've been doing my nightly computing and a bit more family business work than I expected to have tonight. That wasn't any big deal; but it has taken a little time. I've had more sleep than usual this week, though, so I can't complain about one late night – and the fun with my friends was worth it!

I am getting tired now, though, and have a busy work day ahead of me starting in a couple of hours; so I'm going to finish this up with my Christmas music video picks and get started on my nap time.

Tim reminded me earlier today that there are a lot of Christmas comedy songs, and he's right about that; but just for fun, I'll pick the Adam Sandler Hanukkah songs for my picks tonight.

Hanukkah Song 1 – Adam Sandler

Hanukkah Song 2 – Adam Sandler

Hanukkah Song 3 – Adam Sandler

May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Our first full day of the Christmas holiday started out great – even if it was after just a short nap break in the action. Tai Chi with Dad, Michael, Naomi, and Aiden added to the group again was awesome; and then Dad and the other guys cooked breakfast while the girls got to take turns getting ready for the day. That put us on the clean-up crew after we ate; but that was okay with us – and Dad made sure that all of the cookware was cleaned as they went along; so it wasn't even that much work.

Since we were having a work day – either at home or elsewhere; Dad also cooked up a full country breakfast too. That was great, but it was the breakfast conversation and time with my friends and family that was the best part of my morning. Michael, Tim, and Rowen all needed to leave for work or other chores as soon as they could; but Naomi and Aiden stayed to play with Ethan and Ehlana while their parents were busy today. That worked out for Mom, Dad, and me too; since that gave the twins something fun to do while we were busy with chores and holiday pre-cooking work.

That's what I did all day – help out with house cleaning, laundry, and cooking ahead for our family Christmas next weekend. We had some visitors stop by now and then too – like Violet and Dillon; so there was some entertainment here and there that kept the fun level up; but I was happy to spend the time with Mom and Dad too. The four kids mostly played in the living room or Ethan and Ehlana's room. They had one outdoor adventure with Violet and Dillon while they were here; but I stayed in and kept working instead of doing that with them.

I didn't see Michael for his afternoon break because he had some things to do at home while he was away from the Inn, but I did meet up with him again at the Inn in time to help out with another busy, holiday dinner rush. Yes, that does make it sound like this has been an all-work, not-much-fun kind of day; but I really loved the work at the Inn too – and the time with Michael and his family. Rebecca and I especially had fun as we talked about our respective sleepovers; and I'm really glad that she had fun with Lucas and his family. Rebecca told me that Jenny's having a fun weekend with Lance too, and I'm sure we'll hear all about it when she's helping out at the Inn tomorrow too; but I don't think that we need to include any details in my journal.

Michael and I were set free from the Inn early, supposedly thanks to my extra help tonight, and while that might have just been Miranda's excuse for getting us out of there; we were very okay with the bonus chance to spend some time together instead of staying until close with everyone else. Mom, Dad, and the twins were on their own by the time we got home, and we had a little visit with them in the living room while they took a short intermission to chat with us and trade dinnertime stories; but then I took Michael up to the lounge to hang out there instead of watching the last half of the movie they were watching.

We didn't watch a movie. Today was the first day of the bowl games for college football; so we tuned in to the current game being played – and then didn't watch it at all. With everyone else still awake and downstairs, our play time didn't get too hot and heavy – at first. That did heat up a bit after Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana all stopped in to say goodnight to us on their way to bed after their movie, though; so Michael and I are both very happy campers tonight.

Staying up late again tonight would have been fun, but with both a busy afternoon at the Inn and the Christmas concert tomorrow night at the church; we decided not to do that. Michael went home at a bit after eleven so that we could both get a good night of rest. Keeping Michael for another sofa sleepover had been very tempting; but I resisted the urge – and I really do need to get more sleep tonight after only being in nap mode for a couple of hours last night. I haven't had any family business work to do tonight, and the rest of my nightly computing didn't take long; so I'll even manage to be sleeping before midnight. I'm ready to get into nap mode now, and that's all of the news for today, so let's do the Christmas music videos; and then I'm out of digital mode and off to dreamland!

This song gets on my list for making a difference in the world in a big way. The original version was recorded to raise money to help the people affected by the famine in Ethiopia. The new version for Band-Aid 30 will help the people of West Africa who are dealing with the Ebola crisis there. Our family business has more direct ways to help with that than buying music; but I hope that lots of people do buy the song and help out with that worthwhile cause this Christmas!

Do They Know It's Christmas – Band-Aid 1984

Do They Know It's Christmas – Band-Aid 30 – 2014

May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, December 21, 2014

I've had one of those crazy-busy-amazing kind of days, but I'm also exhausted and need to crash. Flip the digital page in your now – my future – for a double journal update because I'm going to add my Christmas music video pick of the day; shut down my computer; and pass out until morning.

There's a good chance that this will be a favorite Christmas song for me forever; and singing it with Michael again tonight was as awesome as it was the first time we did that last Christmas at school.

Not That Far From Bethlehem – Point of Grace

May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Marc!

It always seems a bit strange to me when we celebrate Marc's birthday so close to Christmas; but at least we could do that this year without getting in the way of family holiday plans. Marc was very happy about that too; though I'm not going to suggest it was a best birthday ever for him because there was some minor teen drama going on at his party tonight.

Before I get to that, though, I promised a double update; so let's back up to recap the news from yesterday.

Since I ran out of steam last night, it's funny to start this out by reporting that I was at full power on Sunday morning after getting a good night of rest. Tai Chi was good too, and having breakfast with Michael and his family again this Sunday was another holiday highlight for both the amazing food and getting to spend that time with Jake and Stephanie when we weren't working together – or at least only cooking and cleaning for ourselves instead of hundreds. For Michael and I, and most of the teens, the main action for the rest of the morning was at Sunday school when we were doing a final check and preparing for the Christmas concert last night.

After the service ended, it was all-work, all afternoon for Michael, Jenny, Rebecca, and me – and everyone else working at the Inn. The dining room at the Inn was packed for lunch, and then we moved straight into two early buffets so that we could feed everyone before needing to get back to the church for the Christmas concert. Michael and I weren't the only teens that needed to be at the church as early as possible, and we also weren't the only ones to be late because of holiday weekend work at the Inn or other stores. We missed most of the teen praise team warm-up; but we were still good to go – even if we hadn't had much time to freshen up and get changed after seven hours and change of sweaty kitchen work.

The concert was definitely the highlight of the day for all of the teens involved – and hopefully most of the members of our congregation too. Our concert program was basically a mini-cantata with some extras, and while Stacey's inspiration for it was the duet that Michael and I did at the school Christmas pageant last year; we only used one other song from that cantata in our show while also mixing in other songs that fit in with the story that Stacey and some of the older teens put together to go with the skits that they also wrote. As I noted with my Christmas music video pick from last night, Michael and I sang the 'Not that Far from Bethlehem' duet again, and while that was one of the concert highlights, we also had one other shorter duet; a couple of little solo lines each in other songs; and several other moments when our harmonies were the focus of songs while the rest of the praise team were doing background vocals.

Our music did really stand out, and we were thanked a lot after the concert; but it was the magic of all of those moments that I'll remember forever. Michael and I were the musical stars of the night; and I'm only mentioning that because it's a fact; not to send a brag out into the distant future. There were stars of the show on the acting side of things too; with the minor comedic moments earning both laughs and appreciation. That might seem to be an obvious reaction, but keep in mind that we are teens; and our idea of humor doesn't always translate to the older generations. The guys can all thank Stacey and Pastor John for helping out with that; since they did have some editorial control over the final skits – even if they couldn't do anything about the on-stage improvs.

Between the concert and the little reception that followed, it was heading toward ten-thirty by the time things started to wind down at the church. Michael and I got to stay for the reception, but his parents, Jake, Stephanie, and some other staff went back to the Inn to finish the clean-up and get the dining room set up for breakfast. They were still there when Michael walked home with me, and though we were seriously tempted to shoot for another sofa sleepover, we decided to save that up for a better holiday opportunity – like New Year's Eve; and settled for a little good night cuddle time in the living room at his house until Rebecca got home. She'd spent as much time with Lucas as she could before he went back out to the farm with his family and then checked in at the Inn on her way home; and part two of that was probably to give Michael and I that bit of alone time. Since I pretty much went straight to bed after getting home, there isn't anything to add for the Sunday update. I suppose the fact that I ran out of gas after actually getting a full night of rest is news; but that does happen to Magi Masters too now and then.

There was one little bit of news from Sunday that I was basically out of the loop for; but was important for our family. Grandma and Grandpa got home yesterday afternoon in time to go to the second buffet with our family and be at the church for the concert. I'm really glad that they're home, but Michael and I were so busy that I probably didn't spend more than about three minutes with them on Sunday; and I didn't do a whole lot better than that today either with Marc's party and everything else that we were all busy with. I'll try to do better between now and the weekend; but you know how that goes sometimes with best intentions.

Moving on to day two of this update; our first weekday of the Christmas holiday has been comparatively warm for winter and wet thanks to rain off and on all day. The warm-up on the weekend continued overnight, so the snow is basically gone now except for a spit of it here and there. It was raining when Michael came over for Tai Chi, but the weather didn't really get in our way this morning because Michael and I were both indoors and helping out with chores at our own houses this morning. For me, that included more work to help Mom with getting ready for Christmas and next weekend; and running some loads of laundry. That wasn't all that exciting, but I did enjoy getting to spend that time with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; and we also got to have a little visit with Grandma and Grandpa when they stopped in to see us while doing some running around town.

After having lunch at home, I was set free for the day; and that's when the rain started to actually have some effect on our holiday action. Michael, Tim, and Rowen all came over to my house; and we ended up just hanging out in the lounge for a few hours until it was time to get ready for Marc's birthday party and head out to his farm. Ethan and Ehlana could have stayed with us, but opted to go to the lab with Mom for the afternoon. We did not throw a party while we had the house to ourselves – though Tim joked about it. He and Michael played video games while cuddling with Rowen and me; and we pretty much just goofed off for a while instead of doing anything all that energetic. While I'm not planning any parties, Tim's comment has had me thinking about inviting some of our other friends over for an afternoon or evening sometime during the holidays. The only problem with that is making that happen when we're all so busy with everything from holiday plans with our families and friends to work and other responsibilities.

There isn't anything newsworthy to report from our afternoon in the lounge. In addition to the gaming, Tim wanted to keep an eye on the one college bowl game of the day; but that was a bigger deal for the tail-end of the game because the guys were watching it at the start of Marc's party. We split up so that Rowen, Michael, and Tim could go home to get ready for the party and then we met up at Landry's Automotive so that Tim's mother didn't need to drive around to pick us up before taking us out to the Johnson's farm. We were there a bit early, but Marc and Marcie were happy to have the company after spending most of their afternoon getting things ready for the party.

Marc and his parents hadn't exactly planned for any major outdoor events for his party, but the rain did keep everyone in the house when even winter parties on farms would normally include spending some time wandering around the farm or playing games – like football.

Once all of the guests were there, that made for a fairly loud party. The main action was in the basement rec room. That's a really bug, finished room at Marc's house, but even with all of that space; it still seemed a bit crowded with thirty or so teens and the other family and friends adults and kids that were there for the party too. As I mentioned, we were a bit early, and since there weren't very many guests there yet; Michael and Tim were drawn into the football-watching action right away – mostly because Marc was watching the game with his older brother, Jason. Marcie had been hanging out with Marc's mother and sister; so she was glad to have the company too. We still spent some time with the girls in the kitchen before going downstairs too, but once some of our friends joined us; we joined the boys again – though that mostly meant sitting around and talking while they either watched football or played video games.

The party was pretty much teen standard party action. We had an hour or so to hang out; dinner was a easy-food buffet with everyone spread out either in the dining room or rec room; we crowded into the dining room for the birthday song, cake, and gifts part of the night; and then we were in the rec room for the rest of the evening where music and video gaming ruled – along with Monday night pro football. All of that was a blast for Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me; but I guess here's the point where I need to add in the teen drama part of the night.

I'm tempted to just skip it entirely, but these things happen with teens everywhere – even in our amazing little town; so I also don't want to create a record of my personal history that completely excludes that part of life just because it's uncomfortable and feels a bit too gossipy to write about.

In this particular case, I'm again going to be picking on Marc's brother, Jason. If you're reading my journals over a short period of time, then you'll remember Jason from my comments about him during football season. To be completely honest, I've been okay with not seeing him much since the Thanksgiving weekend. We still saw him around school, and he'd nod or say hello to Michael and Tim when we crossed paths; but they didn't hang out together at all. That could be why his head seemed to be so much bigger today than it was after the championship win – or it just actually grew even bigger right along with his ego. Jason is very proud to be a two-time champion, and with his record this season; I'm fairly sure that he believes that he's a lock on being team captain for his senior year. He might be right about that; but I doubt that Michael and Tim are the only guys on the team who hope that he won't get the job. That's a topic for a future report, though; so let's stick with the party drama instead.

Jason was at the center of the main drama problems tonight; and I mentioned his big head and ego because that's where the problem starts and ends. He's currently in between girlfriends just in time for Christmas; and it was his single status that allowed him to 'play the field' tonight. The problem with that is obvious to most small-town teens – there aren't usually very many single teens at these parties. Unfortunately, Jason doesn't appear to have a problem with flirting with any girl – including his own brother's girlfriend on his birthday. She was just one of Jason's targets, but from the teen drama perspective; that was the biggest issue at the party tonight – even if only some of us actually noticed. To be very blunt, Jason is a total jerk to even think about doing something like that to Marc, and while I'm not going to get into the details; Marcie's reaction to that flirting wasn't very good for her relationship with her boyfriend – especially on his birthday and this close to Christmas.

You're probably wondering about whether I was on Jason's 'hit on' list too. The short answer for that is yes; and though I tried to be polite; I also needed to push back a bit too – both physically and verbally. Jason left me alone after that. He didn't pester Rowen, but that could be because he's afraid of just how big Tim might get – or having Kyle unleashed on him if he did try anything with her. Maybe that's why Erin dates Kyle – she'll never, ever have to worry about any of his friends hitting on her! The rest of the teen drama was minor compared to Marc being stuck dealing with his older brother flirting with his girlfriend and the other girls in his class, and I think that one example is enough for this update; so let's move along.

It's been a little while since my last commentary on teen parties as it relates to me as a Magi Master; and I thought I should include some of my thoughts about that tonight too. My thoughts about that tonight revolve around the puberty developments for Magi and latent members of our community. More details on that are available at the Magi project section of the archives that Uncle Adam and I started; so I'll keep this comparatively superficial. Now that we better understand the Magi aura, and through regularly comparing all of my memories of previous checks of the auras for my friends and neighbors; I can calculate the changes – if there are any.

I use the 'if' for that because the aura for most adults is fairly static except under extreme situations – usually a crisis of some kind. Teens, on the other hand, do experience changes as they pass through puberty. That explains some things that have happened – like Violet's promotion from latent to active Magi. There aren't any current teens close to that borderline right now, so there isn't anyone that we should attempt to track as having potential to make that jump too; but there are still interesting results showing up from those comparisons. The top news for that might be the fact that all latents and Magi both develop stronger auras as teens; and the Magi presumably become stronger in their powers. I know that's true for me, and for Michael and Rowen; but expanding that research to all teens is a work in progress that Uncle Adam will continue to work on with the Magi council.

The degree of that change varies a bit, though not so significantly that we'd have an entirely separate area of study to figure out why. I'm referring to that from a percentage point of view too, since the actual numbers do have a wide range for obvious reasons. A one percent increase in power for me is a lot different than a one percent change for a low-level latent or even low-level Magi. There must be factors that affect that for each person, just as the physical attributes are different for every teen; but we haven't done nearly enough study to quantify or even identify many of those factors.

My point in writing about this tonight is that what we're learning about the teen years could have some significant uses in the future. Identifying borderline potential for latent-to-Magi teens might allow us the opportunity to guide those people over the line. We've talked about it before with pre-natal babies, and that's something that is still being debated among the adult Magi and the council; but this is different too; since there are other social considerations involved with teens that are already at a certain level of physical and mental development – and they wouldn't have had the years of training from birth. No, that hasn't been a huge problem for Violet, but it doesn't mean that there wouldn't be difficulties with other teens.

It isn't a danger, but I am thinking about someone like Jason Johnson for that; and can't imagine that kind of ego doing very well after finding out about sudden super-powers. Sorry about that mental picture if you know Jason in your 'now', and maybe he's mellowed out by then; but the Jason Johnson of today would totally be a B-movie cliché if that scenario unless he had an adult Magi blocking him twenty-four seven.

That totally went off the rails, but I'm pretty much done with the aura commentary for tonight anyway. I will keep adding more to the Magi project archive for some of the ideas I have to help with this transition and training that could help at certain points along the way that would build up that Magi muscle; but let's move this journal entry along so that I can wrap this up and head off to sleep soon.

Our evening entertainment had video gaming and football at the center of the action for the boys, so the girls mostly listened to Christmas music videos while doing a lot of sitting around and chatting. A bit of dancing here and there was an option when boyfriends weren't busy, and Michael and I had some cuddle time too; but I spent a little more time without him that with tonight. Since it's a weeknight, and parents and teens have jobs to get to tomorrow; the party started to wrap up at eleven o'clock. Mom won – or lost – the drive-us-home lottery, and she was there on time; so we were among the first group to leave. That was okay with me, since it meant that Michael and I got to have a little time together before our holiday curfew; and we had a bit of quality cuddle time in the lounge after we got home – and after we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night.

I missed out on dinner and a family business meeting while I was away, which is too bad; but Michael wasn't particularly upset about missing the bonus work night at the Inn with his family. Violet and Dillon joined in for the dinner, but went to hang out with some friends for the evening. I haven't seen them all that much yet, but hope we'll get a chance to visit during the rest of the week.

I seem to say and write something to that effect a lot; and then nothing happens. I will keep hoping for the best, though; so maybe that'll happen this time!

Anyway, our minor make-out session was a fun way to end a pretty good day; and now we're down to three more sleeps to Christmas. While our family won't be coming home for Christmas Day, that might actually be a good thing; since we do have a lot going on over the next two days. I'll be helping Mom out when I can; we have Dad's work Christmas dinner tomorrow night at the Inn; Michael and I have a teen praise team practice after that to get ready for our service on Sunday; and on top of the usual Christmas Eve day fun, we have a Christmas luncheon to go to at the lab on Wednesday before everyone working there is sent home for a little vacation until after the New Year. There will be some people who will need to do a little bit of work nearly every day; but that'll just be maintenance – something that Ehlana is happy about because she's hoping to do extra work there when nobody except Uncle Adam and Dillon are there to play with her.

All of that has me thinking that I've written enough for tonight and should get the down time started so that I'll be ready for all of that fun. Let's do my Christmas music video pick and then I'm off to dreamland for the rest of the night.

Before you ask; no, I am not losing my memory or forgetting which songs I've picked so far to save as part of my journal. While this is déjà vu for the song; this version is a classic; and worth including in my Christmas song playlist!

The Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie

May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

With just two more sleeps until Christmas, the excitement around town is kicking up a few notches every day – especially for the kids and teens. I'll include myself in that group; though being fired up doesn't really have anything to do with finding out what Santa is going to leave under our tree this year. It's the family and friends time that I'm loving a lot – and that's what I spent most of my time doing today.

Starting out with Tai Chi this morning was good; Mom and I had another work around the kitchen morning; and then I was free to play with Michael, Tim, and Rowen for most of the afternoon. The rain had moved on by then, and it was only a bit cooler than it has been the past couple of days; so wandering around outside was an option. We would have taken Ethan and Ehlana along with us; but they had other plans for the afternoon with Mom at the lab that they picked over the play time with us.

It could be that I'm not the only kid in the family in need of some time away from our overly-responsible parents; but then it's already too late for the twins too – and they do get to have lots of fun with their friends on a regular basis. We'll have some play time with all four of them tomorrow – Ehlana and Naomi definitely want to go shopping tomorrow; and even Ethan and Aiden won't have a problem with the Olde Bakery visit to get our Santa-approved cookies and reindeer treats.

Today, our little outdoor adventure wasn't much more than a bike ride to and around the park; a stop at the Emporium for snacks and hot chocolate; and a bit of hang-out time by the falls with a few other teens and friends. That might not sound very exciting, but we had fun; and then Michael and I needed to get ready for the Christmas dinner party that Dad and Aunt Leanne were hosting for work. After the chores and play time, I wanted to hit the shower too before getting dressed up, so I did that; and then Ehlana and I had some hair-play and dress-up fun before eventually meeting up with Mom, Dad, Michael, and Ethan in the living room.

The dinner was mostly to thank Claire and her family for another year of Claire's work there; but Dad and Aunt Leanne also invited some other friends – suppliers or clients. That was a fairly short list, since most of their suppliers were store owners who weren't able to attend because of being busy for the last two days before Christmas; but that was okay with me. I got to have dinner with Michael, Lucas, and Rebecca; and the four of us had fun taking care of Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden with a little help from Emma and Benjamin Norton at the table next to us with the rest of the kid, tween, and teen guests.

Dinner was pre-ordered with everything from appetizers to dessert picked by everyone in advance; so we pretty much just sat back and enjoyed the food and companionship for a couple of hours. There were secret Santa gifts and little entertainment packs for the kids that all of the teens played with too; and the adults got to be mostly kid-free so that they could enjoy their meal too. Dad didn't do anything flashy at the dinner to thank Claire or anyone else – he doesn't believe in drawing that kind of attention to himself. They took care of Claire's bonus and real gift in private.

Dinner was the highlight of the day for me, but Michael and I didn't get to stay for the end of it because we needed to be at the church for our teen praise team practice. Yes, the big concert is over now, but we're doing the Sunday service for the Christmas holiday weekend too; and needed to practice those songs tonight – especially since we didn't work on them during the last two practices while gearing up for the concert. That was fun, but I guess the big news from that hour and a half of fun for Michael and me is that Stacey asked us to whip up another duet for the Christmas Eve service – a last-minute add-on to the program due to popular demand. I have mixed feelings about that, but saying no wasn't really an option; and I do really love singing and playing with Michael.

After our practice, I went home with Michael, and we got to hang out with Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon, Rebecca, and Lucas for a while – until Lucas went home with his family after they'd finished a round of in-town visits while they were away from the farm anyway. That was probably close to the most time I spent with Violet and Dillon so far this holiday; or at least it was when we weren't competing for time with other members of our family. We pretty much just sat around and listened to Christmas music while chatting about everything from Christmas to college and weddings; and that was a perfect change to wind down from another busy day for me – even if there wasn't much in the way of Michael and me alone time before I came home for the night.

On the Jake and Stephanie wedding front, I'll only mention that they are talking about it a lot with the parents and their best friends; but will be waiting until next week to start making any major decisions about things like a date for the wedding next summer. They will need to get some things done before heading back to New York; but I'm sure they'll get everything worked out. They are fairly motivated – and who wouldn't be at the prospect of spending a lot of your first year of marriage in southern Europe. Yes, they'll be studying too; but they'll also have lots of holiday and weekend opportunities to play.

I'd be okay with spending next winter with them in Europe; though I seriously doubt that the parents would approve letting Michael and I take a year off of high school to do that – even if we could home school ourselves easily enough if we wanted to play at being students while we were away.

That's actually a fairly happy little thought to take with me into dreamland, and I don't really have any other news for tonight; so let's do the Christmas music video pick for tonight and I'll get right to exploring those not-going-to-really-happen scenarios!

Here's another of those Christmas songs that tug at the heart; and reminds us about what we should be focused on at Christmas – and during the rest of the year too.

Santa I'm Right Here – Toby Keith

May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas Eve Day!

It's late, and I'm in bed now that I've finished my Santa's little helper gig, but I need some time to wind down; so this doesn't need to be a micro-update. We've had a crazy-busy day; so sit back and enjoy the update!

Michael came over for Tai Chi and stayed for breakfast; but then we split up so that Michael and I could both hit the showers and get ready for a play day. Mom and Dad were both busy this morning, and while Dad was getting ready for the extra time off over the next couple of weeks; Mom mostly helped out at the lab with getting ready for their Christmas luncheon. While they were busy, Ethan and Ehlana opted for a visit to KidZone for a mini Christmas party that was going on all morning before most of the kids got to go home at lunchtime – except for the few kids that stayed while their parents were still busy with work. Rowen came over to my house first; we collected Michael when we were ready to go; and then we met up with Tim on the main drag to wander around town and do a little window shopping – since there wasn't really anything that any of us needed to pick up – other than the Olde Bakery order that we picked up and dropped off in Dad's truck to make sure we got our Santa treats before they ran out. We picked up the boxes of treats for the Landrys, Emersons, and Stones too; so there were extra stops along our shopping path – though we would have stopped at the computer store.

It'll be a while longer before any of us are interested in buying cars from Tim's Mom; but we were okay with the stop at the Inn that included a hot chocolate and snack break while we were there.

Michael and I eventually went to get Ethan and Ehlana from KidZone in time to get over to the lab for the luncheon while Rowen and Tim moved on to do their own thing for a while; and we then spent an hour or so having that meal with the staff there – and most of our home-town family. Dad and Aunt Leanne came over from work, and they were done for the day; the clinic was closed while pretty much everyone there came over for the little party; and Grandma and Grandpa were on the invite list because Aunt Grace wanted to invite them – along with some other town VIP's and friends.

That party marked the end of the work week for most of my favorite adults, and though Mom and Dad were finished at the office and lab; they had other chores and shopping to do; so Michael and I went a long – mostly to help out and spend time with them, Ethan, and Ehlana. Michael needed to help out at the Inn with the early dinner sitting they had ahead of the Christmas Eve service, and though I wanted to do that too; I stayed with my family instead to help out at home while he was busy.

I'm skipping some play time and other fun that happened this afternoon, but that was mostly just cameo moments here and there. After getting home, we had a minivan and truck to unload; everything got put away; and then it was already time to start taking turns to get ready for the church service while also dealing with our evening meal. I also needed to be at church early so that Michael and I could do one more little practice before the service; so Dad gave me a ride there so that I didn't have to walk in my dress shoes – even though it really wasn't too cold for the walk.

Before I get to the Christmas Eve service, I should mention at least a couple of family travel notes that I really haven't kept up with in my journal. Violet and Dillon headed for Woodvale after the luncheon in the lab; and I don't think that they've decided for sure whether they'll try to be back here tomorrow afternoon – or wait until Friday to come back. I'm glad that I don't have to choose between families for Christmas Day! Yes, Michael and I will have two dinners to attend tomorrow; but we can do that by walking down the street from my house to his. Violet and Dillon will have to skip family dinners either here or in Woodvale – especially since Violet has up to three options in Woodvale alone. Josiah went home with Christina today too; and they'll be back on Friday – or possibly late Thursday night. They will miss the Palmer family Christmas; but they're going to have to juggle that most years – except for when Christina's family is here for Christmas anyway.

It's funny how the holiday travel didn't seem to be a big deal to me when it was always about family and friends coming home to Witch Falls – or not; but it is now – even when I think about it with Violet; and her home is still, technically, in Woodvale.

Moving along with the rest of the story for today, though; Michael met up with me at the church and we went off on our own to do a little music practice at an old piano in one of the Sunday school classrooms. The music room was being used by the praise team for their warm-ups; so we didn't want to get in the way. The Christmas Eve service is one of my favorites of the year; and I always get the warm fuzzies just from walking into the sanctuary when the lights are dimmed and the candlelight sets the mood for quiet reverence, wonder, and joy.

While I really loved singing and playing 'O Holy Night' with Michael, and I think we did a good job; the highlight of the service for me was Pastor Martha's Christmas message. It was essentially the exact same mini-sermon that she used last year and had developed using the archive Christmas story that Mom had put together for our first Christmas here in Witch Falls; and the story was just as powerful tonight as it was last year. I'd say that we have a new Christmas tradition in town; and I hope that Pastor Martha – and eventually, Pastor John, will keep our history alive – even when that's being done through a 'what-if' kind of message.

We'd all already had a long day by then, but it wasn't over by a long shot. Michael got a pass on going back to the Inn to help out while he and I were on the receiving end of a lot of praise for our music from a lot of people; but his parents, Jake, and Stephanie took a small work crew with them to finish the clean-up and get set-up for the Boxing Day breakfast buffet on Friday. That meant that I got to bring Michael home with me too and have both some family and alone time with him before he needed to be home too; but that was actually more of a calm before the playing Santa's helpers storm of activity started shortly after he left for the night. We didn't have company over after the service because we're hosting the family dinner tomorrow; and we'll be able to do the family gift exchange then. What we did do was have a bedtime snack and drinks; watch a Christmas show in the living room; and then Michael and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night before moving on to the lounge for that alone time and minor make-out session.

I'd say that was a great way to end the night, but as I mentioned; my day wasn't over. After seeing Michael out with a last, front porch kiss goodnight; it was time to get to work with Mom and Dad. It seemed to take a long time to haul all of the gifts downstairs and get everything set up under the tree; we filled the stockings; munched on some cookies and reindeer treats; and then took care of some last-minute work in the kitchen to get set up for breakfast for six. Grandma and Grandpa are going to be splitting their morning between our house and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's place; but they're doing breakfast here. I didn't write 'us' there, because I'm going to be at Michael's house for breakfast. He's coming here early to open our family gifts with me; and then we'll do the same after breakfast at his house – mostly because the twins will be up for that way earlier than Jake, Rebecca, and Stephanie will be.

I haven't put any time-frame with all of that action this evening, but all of that fun and work took until two-thirty. I got ready for bed after that, and have been doing my nightly computing since snuggling in with Mandy for what nap time I'll get to have before the twins will give us our wake-up call. While I've been checking email and doing the rest of my usual surfing, Ethan and Ehlana have already snuck downstairs to put their gifts under the tree; probably rattle a few presents with their names on them; and polish off the treats that we left behind for them. They'll still be up early, though; so I should probably get to the Christmas music video pick for tonight and then head off to nap mode for a couple of hours.

I'm sure that it's no surprise that my pick for Christmas Eve is the same one that Michael and I sang at church tonight, and while a duet video might be more appropriate, this version of the song is one of my all-time favorites, and always makes my Christmas favorites playlist.

O Holy Night – Martina McBride

May the Magi Force be with you!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas!

In my now, this update is coming to you moments after the last one. I've decided to take a day off from all computing – or work that isn't family-fun-related; so expect a double-update for your Boxing Day report!

Until then, this is the last of my Christmas song list video picks for 2014; and I think it's particularly appropriate for us here in Witch Falls.

Let There Be Light – Point of Grace

Okay, since you have to wait to flip a digital page in your present and what will be my Christmas past whenever that is to read my Christmas recap; here's a bonus Christmas pick from my favorite Christmas album of the year.

That's Christmas to Me - Pentatonix

May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Merry Christmas again!

Yes, Boxing Day is over now too, but I promised a double update; so let's start with the Christmas Day action!

We were up early – by a bit after five-thirty; and Ethan and Ehlana were happy to wake me up first so that we could put a pot of coffee on to brew, boil the kettle for hot chocolate, and get a snack ready before waking up Mom and Dad. They took care of that too; which is why I had time to share a Merry Christmas, good morning kiss or three with Michael when he came over. He got a wake-up call from the twins too; but his was via Ethan's iPad and his iPod. They'd set that up ahead of time, so Michael had been ready for it, and he'd managed to get more sleep than I did thanks to not having any little kids in the house to wait to play Santa for – unless you're counting his Mom!

After a round of Merry Christmas hugs and kisses in the kitchen, and once we'd filled drink orders and moved into the living room; it was time to jump right into finding out what Santa left for us in our stockings and under the tree. That was fun, and I loved my gifts as much as the next teenage girl; but let's not really get bogged down with a long description of every present given and received. Mom and Dad always get us really nice things; Michael earns another A+ on the boyfriend front for Christmas gift picks; and every moment was special and magical for me. We also remember what's most important about Christmas; and it's the love that makes these moments so special – not the gifts, decorations, food, and the rest of the traditions.

Doing the gift exchange for six didn't take that long, and while we had a little time to play with new toys and chat; Michael and I needed to get moving again too soon – and so did Mom and Dad; since they had work to do in the kitchen to get ready for breakfast and the family dinner. Michael went home while I hit the shower and got dressed up for the day in a new outfit that Mom had gotten for me, and by the time I was ready to go to Michael's house; the turkey was in the oven, and Grandma and Grandpa had arrived to have breakfast with Mom, Dad, and the twins before they'd be moving on to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house. We decided to do our gift exchange when we did that with the rest of the family; mostly because I couldn't stay long enough to enjoy the moment. The hugs, kisses, and best wishes were enough for then, though; and I was off to spend a couple of hours and change with Michael and his family.

Opening stockings again there was fun, and we did that before breakfast; but waited until after we ate to open our gifts. The food and family time continued the already great day; and we had the bonus of having Stephanie's parents there with us – an option that made life easier for Jake and Stephanie. Lucas couldn't be with us too; but he and Rebecca spent most of the rest of the day together once he'd finished the morning Christmas thing with his own family. I'm again going to skip the gift play-by-play; but one I will mention is Rebecca's top gift – her first cell phone.

As usual with things like this, I'm sure there was some parental collusion; and we knew shortly after Rebecca turned her new phone on for the first time that several of her friends – including Jenny – had new phones for Christmas too. I'm okay with not being on that phone-gift list; if only because I wouldn't use one enough right now to be worth paying for a plan. Yeah, I know that's crazy-talk for a teen these days; but I do have other communication options if needed. My personal favorite is just going and talking to someone in person. If that's something that doesn't happen much in your 'now'; think about trying it out – it's like face time without the phones or software!

I'm not making fun of smart phones – they do have their uses. I just don't personally rate them as a very high priority for me right now. That'll change once I'm ready to travel a bit more – and can drive a car on my own in a couple of years. This is one club I don't have a problem with being excluded from for a while longer, but Rebecca was very happy; and I'm glad that she's enjoying her new favorite toy.

There had been a lot of work going on at Michael's house before breakfast as Jacob and Jake had help with getting the turkey in the oven and other prep work done along with making breakfast, and though Michael and I weren't in on that; we did help with some of the work after breakfast – and before we were set free to go and play between then and when we were doing our first family dinner of the day at my house. That was probably worked out with the parents too; though not for everyone in all of our collective families. Michael and I were on the move most of that time – stopping in for a visit with Rowen and Tim at Rowen's house to exchange gifts with them; and make a few other stops before moving on to my house in time to play with Ethan, Ehlana, and our cousins for a little while before having our Christmas dinner.

For that meal, we were seated at the dining room table with grandma, grandpa, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam closest to us instead of with the younger kids; and I really loved getting to spend that time with them – especially since it was about the only time we had with them all day. The meal was great, and while I'd normally rank it higher than that; I do have to be honest and compare it to the dinner that Jacob and Jake put on for us at the Stone-Bassett family dinner. Sorry, Mom, and everyone else involved; but the chefs in town won this round! I can tell you that the clean-ups for each meal were very similar, though; and Michael and I weren't surprised to be on both of those crews.

Our day really was a blur of non-stop action – both work and fun. The early family dinner at my house was followed by the clean-up and family gift exchange. We had a bit of time to play with new toys again with my brother, sister, and cousins; but then Michael and I needed to run again to get to his house for family dinner number two. This time, we were with his younger cousins for dinner; though we were happy to spend that hour and a half with Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia. I do like his aunts and uncles a lot, but Michael and Rebecca have a different relationship with them than I have with Aunt Leanne – mostly because all of the parents in their family have very irregular work hours with their respective businesses. Aunt Sylvia is the only exception, since she's mostly stayed at home with the kids; but she's still very busy too – and does work for their business from home.

As mentioned, that meal was fabulous; and Michael and I spent the rest of the evening at his house. The dinner was followed by clean-up number two – or three if you include breakfast; and then we had the gift exchange for Michael's family. It was play or wind down time after that. The adults watched a couple of movies in the living room and the kids and teens mostly played upstairs with news toys and video games. Rebecca and I got to play with Sophia and Jessica while our boys mostly played video games with Ryan and some of the other guys. We had some drop-in playmates too, but the older teens and college students spent more time in the living room with the parents – or hanging out together somewhere else in the house.

I stayed with Michael until midnight after helping Michael with the last clean-up of the day. We'd started that as soon as the last of their guests went home and his parents, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca went up to bed so they could get some sleep ahead of the early wake-up call that was coming for the breakfast buffet at the Inn in the morning. That also allowed us to be alone for our goodnight hugs and kisses, so we made that a minor make-out session in the living room. We didn't let that get too out of hand because Michael needs to be at the Inn early too; which is why I didn't stay later and came home for the night. Everyone else at my house was sleeping by then too, so that's the end of my Christmas Day part of this update. There's a lot I didn't include just to keep this from being a small novel; but I hope it's obvious that we collectively had a fairly amazing day – and I loved every minute of it!

Starting out Boxing Day with a breakfast buffet at the Inn is bound to make anyone happy; and it definitely did that for me today. So did the Tai Chi with Mom, Dad, and the twins; and the morning of shopping with Rowen and some of our favorite women and girls – both family and friends. We didn't have many of our weekend guests here for most of the morning fun; but our company did arrive throughout the day beginning in the late morning. Michael was busy at the Inn, so I felt a little bit guilty for not staying there to help him out; but not enough to skip all of the shopping fun – especially when we had another awesome day to be out and about.

That's something that I didn't include in the first half of this report, but then we didn't really get outdoors much yesterday to enjoy the unusually warm temperatures for around here at Christmas. Maybe I'm just blocking it out because I wanted snow for the day and we weren't going to get that with temperatures in the low fifties. It is nice to wander around the stores and not need to bundle up or haul all of the winter weather gear around while shopping, though; so I'm also apparently bi-polar about things like this! ;^)

Okay, let's get back to the actual news. Breakfast was good, and Rowen and I had that meal with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. The twins had their best friends dropped off with them for the day while three out of four of their parents were busy at the stores. Ehlana and Naomi were with us for the shopping too; but Ethan and Aiden got to go and hang out with Dad and the other guys instead of hanging out with us. They guys went shopping for a while too, but they also went back to the houses early to put lunch together – and welcome some of the early arrivals. The shopping was fun and we each bought a few things; but Boxing Day isn't as crazy around here as other places – it's just fun; and a chance for quite a few people to use gift certificates that they received for Christmas – especially at stores like Palmers, the Fix-it Shop, and Emerson Computers.

Rowen needed to spend some time helping out at the computer store too, so she went to do that when I went home with the other girls in my family for lunch. My day kicked up a couple of notches on the busy scale then because I helped with the work for lunch, did some kid-control duties, and helped with unpacking cars and SUV's when the Rice clan arrived. Dawn helped me out with some of that, and we spent most of the rest of the day together after that; while Violet and Dillon didn't stay long before going over to his house to spend the rest of the day with his family.

There's way too much in the afternoon news to cover everything. There was more shopping for the visiting girls in the family; the guys played some football at the park; there was something going on at every house in the family; and Dawn and I ran around trying to do as much as we could of everything – usually with Ehlana and Naomi in tow – and sometimes with Ethan and Aiden too. That included shopping and football; hanging out with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden for a while; and visiting with all of our aunts, uncles, and collective grandparents for at least a few minutes each. It's no wonder that I'm tired out now; but it was all a blast of fun too!

Michael had some breaks, so I got to spend some time with him, but he worked until close too; so he just went home after that instead of hanging out with me after work. He still has two more busy days ahead of him at the Inn; so we'll just have to fit in some time for us whenever we can. For me, the last third or so of my day was probably the quietest – though the busy didn't really change all that much – we just didn't have everyone together in one place tonight. Guests were in their host homes for dinner and the evening, and while there was some visiting going on; we only had Jonathan come over to spend extra time playing video games with Chris and Martin at our house.

I helped out with the pre and post-dinner work in the kitchen; Rowen and I were on kid control during dinner and for the evening; and most of the adults here were ready to go to bed early tonight after a busy travel and play day. That didn't include Chris, Martin, and Jonathan; and they're still playing video games in the living room as I write this – after watching the evening college bowl game with some of the other guys. At least they did that downstairs tonight and freed up the lounge for the girls to play in and watch chick or kid flicks. The last few hours have mostly been a combination of kid play and girl chat time for Dawn and me. Movies were playing too, but I didn't pay much attention to them. I had more fun playing and then winding down with Dawn and any of the other women and girls in the lounge – though the n umber of girls varied quite a bit.

Dawn and I have been on our own for an hour or so; she's sleeping now; and I plan on being out for the count shortly after finishing this report. I may not have to work all day tomorrow like some of my friends do, but we do have a major family Christmas to put on; and even if I'm not working in the kitchen all day, I'm sure that kid control will be a nearly full-time job for me while the adults are busy. The warm is coming to an end overnight, and we've had a bit of rain here and there that will continue overnight; so the weather could be an issue for our entertainment options for the younger kids. At least they got to be out and played at the park for a while today. A flake or three of snow is possible too; but I won't hold my breath on that one.

I'll let you know how that goes with the next update, but I don't really have anything else pressing to add to this report; so I'm going to wrap this up and get some sleep. We've had nearly as much fun today as we did yesterday, and while I can't rank this higher than Christmas Day if for no other reason than I didn't get to spend much time with Michael; I do think we're well on the way to another best-ever-so-far kind of holiday and long weekend.

Two more days to go, and then some of us will want to nap and rest up until New Year's Eve! I'm going to get on to the napping part of my night right now, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, December 27, 2014

I'm only taking a few minutes to check my email and do this journal update before getting back to the late-night hang-out in the lounge; so this is going to be another short report with a double-update to follow.

Family Christmas Day has been awesome, and while I helped out wherever Mom and Dad needed me; we're having a lot of fun too. The kids, parents and grandparents are all in bed now, but Violet and Dillon are staying here tonight; and Chris, Martin, Dawn, and I are still hanging out with them while we can – before the rest of Violet's family heads home again tomorrow afternoon.

I need to get back to that, though, and you're reading this someday in my future anyway; so just flip the digital page and get the full report there!

Until then, though; I'm out of here and back to the teen-time fun.

May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

I'm writing this micro-update between Tai Chi and breakfast while getting ready for a busy play day because Michael and I fell asleep on the sofa in the living room at his house last night.

No, that wasn't intentional, but I don't have time this morning to go into the details of my weekend; so I guess I'll have to do a three-day update next – or concede defeat that there isn't time to do everything. A sofa sleepover with Michael is a pretty good trade-off for my usual bedtime computing, though; so I wouldn't change a thing! ;^)

So was the pre-exercise goofiness with my family while they teased Michael and me about that un-planned overnight cuddle adventure; but that's part of the next update too; so that's it for now. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, December 29, 2014

We've officially moved on from Christmas mode today, and while that's mostly because everyone in town is starting to gear up for New Year's Eve; it's also because the decorations are being taken down and packed away for another year too. I'm including our house for that; and doing that work was a big part of my chores today – along with cleaning guest bedrooms and helping out with a lot of laundry – both of those jobs normal after a weekend with a house full of guests. Having all of that on the go is why I'm a bit surprised that Mom and Dad were okay with the teen and kid sleepover we're doing right now as I write this; but it wasn't a planned event – it just grew into this little adventure one or two kids and teens at a time. I'll get to that soon; but it's time to back up and cover the weekend news that I've skipped writing about for the past two days.

Oh, wait – there is something I want to mention before I get side-tracked. Martin left a few things behind when he headed home yesterday that we found while cleaning his room. Mom's already sent his stuff to him, and we even did his laundry first, but I really didn't need to know what kind of underwear my cousin prefers; and I suspect that's going to be weird for him to get that package from Mom when it gets to Woodvale. Violet thinks it'll be hilarious, though; so I'm glad she'll have some entertainment with that when she and Dillon head for Woodvale for another visit before heading back to school – though they aren't sure when that'll be quite yet. They're going to do some more work at the lab while they're here. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on that little side-story if there's anything more interesting to add; and I'm mostly just including it here for the weird factor – and as a reminder that Magi Masters deal with these normal issues too.

Okay, I might have used telekinesis to pick up Martin's dirty underwear instead of doing it the normal way; but I was doing most of the chores this morning with some Magi-powered assistance anyway!

Let's get to the weekend recap, though; and move along.

I started the day with Tai Chi, and Michael joined us for that before going home again to get ready to help out at the Inn. He split his time there so that he could be with me for our family Christmas dinner in the afternoon. That was pretty much the only calm moments we had all day through until the fun started to wind down later in the evening. For me, that meant helping out in the kitchen both before and after breakfast; eventually getting a change to grab a shower and get ready for the day; and then spending the rest of the morning on kid control. We went outside for a while; played at the park; and then played in the lounge and my room after that. Snacks were put out for anyone needing munchies while waiting for the mid-afternoon meal; we started the family gift exchange shortly before one o'clock; and then the kids had time to play with new toys while Michael and I were on the work crew in the kitchen and dining room after that until we sat down to eat.

Even the work was fun for us, though maybe not so much for Michael; since he'd already been doing a lot of dishwashing and prep-work at the Inn already – and had a lot more to do after going back there again. We did get to sit with the other teens for the meal, so that was good, and while Michael did have to get back to helping out at the Inn after we ate; he also got to miss out on the hour or so of post-dinner clean-up. That sounds like a lot more work than play up to that point, and maybe it was; but I pretty much had the evening off to play after that. We were in the lounge for most of that time while the adults either stayed and hung out in the living room with football on the tube or went visiting to other homes. The lunge was basically girl-central for the teens and kids while most of the boys were hanging out in the game room at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne's house in the early evening; but everyone was pretty much back in their own homes in time for the younger kids to go to bed.

There's a lot of action that I've skipped with that because there were two family dinners and gift exchanges going on this afternoon – the one at our house; and the one that Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne were hosting for his family. That made for a lot of traffic between houses; and I'm still hearing new stories today about what was going on there on the weekend. I do know that the Carrington-Johnson-McEwan clan had a fun weekend too, though; so that's all that really matters.

Moving this along, though, we played all evening; watched a chick flick; and then I helped with the bedtime routine when it was time to get the youngest kids off to sleep for the night. Our only extra guest for the night was Jayden; mostly because Jaimie and Kaitlyn picked spending the time with Aunt Grace and Caleb instead of with Dawn, Ehlana, and me. If they'd been here for a third sleepover, they would have spent one night with us; but that wasn't an option this time. We'll probably spend a little less time with them for holiday weekends now – at least for a few years; but that's happening anyway now that I'm busy with Michael and his family a lot too.

That's why I didn't spend much time with my family on Sunday. I should just move on to that part of the weekend report now anyway. I already mentioned the teen time in the lounge in the micro-update from Saturday, and there isn't really any news to report from that – other than we stayed up too late with the chat time and only had naps before needing to be awake and on the go again on Sunday morning.

Michael came over for Tai Chi; I got ready for church; and then went to have breakfast with him and his family while Mom and Dad hosted an easy-breakfast at our house. I didn't pick which meal to be at just for the food, but it was a bonus! I was mostly glad to spend the time with Michael and his family after not seeing them much in a couple of days. I made up for that all day on Sunday. Michael and I needed to eat and run so that we could get to the church early for teen praise team warm-ups; and the service was a blast of fun for us too before we both moved on to the Inn to get to work again. We helped out with the prep work and set up for the first buffet; had that meal with my family before our collective guests headed home again; and then spent the rest of the day helping out in the kitchen. We had some breaks here and there when we could get them, but it was a very long, busy day; and that's the only reason that I fell asleep while cuddling with Michael at his house after we were sent home for the night. I was okay with that for obvious reasons, and Miranda apparently was too; since she didn't wake us up and send me home after they got back from the Inn with Jake and Stephanie. She did take a picture and send it to my Mom, and made sure that my parents knew not to worry about me; though that was all for show and fun since Mom already knew that through our link.

That makes the report for Sunday easy for my own news, but I did miss out on most of the family action. They had the usual holiday weekend crazy-busy all morning on Sunday as they added in packing and loading cars and SUV's for the trips home along with having breakfast and getting everyone ready for church. I missed all of that; was busy before, during, and after the church service; and Michael and I were on kid control during the first buffet sitting while most of the other teens in our group were busy with their own families. I also missed the afternoon, dinner, and evening action after our family guests had left; though that was really just work at my house anyway while mom and Dad both caught up on their work in the office while the twins were lent out to Naomi and Aiden for the afternoon and early evening.

While that still leaves out lots of family and friends news from the weekend; I'm going to keep this moving along and wrap this up with the rest of the action for today. Waking up cuddled with Michael certainly got the day off to an awesome start; I've already mentioned that Tai Chi was great too; and then Michael and I split up to have breakfast with our own families ahead of our respective chores around the houses morning. Since I've also mentioned that we did some of that work with a little Magi-powered assistance, you can guess that the work was mostly fun too; and then Ethan, Ehlana, and I were set free after lunch for the rest of the day while Mom got back to work – including spending a couple of hours at the lab – where Uncle Adam, Dillon, and Violet had already spent a lot of the day. I didn't mention having Violet and Dillon with us for breakfast because they were back to spending the nights at his house last night. With a house full of kids and teens here tonight, though; they're probably happy about being there instead of here with us.

It wasn't very warm out today, and there wasn't any snow on the ground; but we were still ready to get outside for a while by the time we started meeting up with our friends after lunch. Ethan, Ehlana, and I met up with Michael first; we added his three younger Bassett cousins along the way to picking up Naomi and Aiden; and then had Rowen and Tim catch up with us before we all went over to the park to play and hang out with the other kids and teens that were there too. I don't really have any specific news from that play time – we mostly just goofed off and traded Christmas stories with our collective friends before heading to my house when we were ready to warm up and have a snack break.

Ethan and Ehlana started the sleepover talk during that break; and the snowball pretty much just started rolling downhill and gaining momentum after that. The details aren't all that exciting, so let's just mention the results. Ethan and Ehlana have Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Susan Connor with them tonight. Susan is one of Sophia's usual playmates, and was added to the guest list so that Sophia wouldn't feel like a fifth wheel with the rest of her friends. Once Michael, Rowen, and Tim were included, we couldn't resist the puppy-dog looks from Jessica and Ryan, and while Ryan had to settle for hanging out with the rest of the guys; Jessica was able to invite Lindsay Faulkner to join in on the fun after finding out that Patrick and Scott were invited too. Rebecca and Lucas were invited too, but he couldn't get away from the farm after the holiday weekend that they mostly took off; so Rebecca opted to go out there for her night off from the Inn.

Mom had the full gang for dinner, and went with an easy meal that required a run to the grocery store for stacks of frozen pizza and boxes of wings – along with a re-stocking of snacks after my cousins pretty much wiped out the supply in the lounge. Rowen and I helped out with the work because the boys were into college bowl games by then – along with some video gaming. The younger kids split their time between the lounge, my room, Ehlana's and Ethan's rooms, and the kitchen; but they kept themselves entertained while we were busy. Dinner was in the dining room for the kids and teens, but Mom and Dad opted to set us free and do their own thing in the kitchen while keeping an eye on the ongoing pizza cooking once the first couple of pizzas were served with the platter of wings. The boys demolished the food pretty much as soon as each pizza hit the table; though they did let the girls grab a slice here and there so that we didn't starve while waiting for them to fill up. The good news for Mom and Dad's budget, though, is that the football game was still on and Tim wanted to get back to it as soon as possible – and the video gaming too.

Michael needed to go along with the other guys, and that was okay with me; but Rowen, Jessica, Lindsay, and I had some fun joking about that while doing the easy clean-up after we finished our meal without the boys. We sent Mom and Dad off to the office so they could get going on their homework then too, and once we had the clean-up done; we dropped off plates of dessert for them along with fresh cups of coffee, and then headed up to the lounge and my room for the rest of the night. While the television and my school computer were tied up with the football and gaming for the guys; the rest of the girls and I weren't totally bored. We used my good computer for a movie; we played games in my room; and Rowen and I did mini-makeovers for all of the younger girls. We also took care of getting Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends into bed when it was time to do that; though I'm also sure that they didn't go straight to sleep – especially when chatting via iPads was an option for them between their rooms.

The fun level kicked up a couple of notches after that when it was just the teens and older kids left standing, and other than one goodnight visit from Mom and Dad; we were pretty much parent-free for the rest of the night too. Football and gaming were still the top activities in the lounge, but at least Tim and Michael were willing to spend some time cuddling with Rowen and me by then – while continuing to watch the bowl game and take turns playing the video games with Ryan, Patrick, and Scott.

There weren't any other kids in the room doing any cuddling, but I'll have to start making some adjustments for the way I think about Rowen's brother, Michael's cousins, and their friends. Patrick and Scott are going on twelve now; and Jessica and Lindsay are only a year younger. The funny thing is that the age difference should have them hitting their growth spurts at nearly the same time, and I have a suspicion that the girls might even 'cross over' before the boys do – if only because Patrick and Scott are both fairly self-conscious about being shorter than most of the girls in their grade right now. Ryan still has a few years to go before that'll be an issue for him, but then he does have a crush of his own right now. He hides it pretty well, which has me wondering if that's a glimpse of what Uncle Adam was like around Aunt Leanne; but Michael and I both sense Ryan's emotions very strongly – and won't say a word about it to him or anyone else.

I should wrap this up, since it's late and we're going to have another busy play day starting in a few hours. We did the video gaming thing until nearly one when Jessica and Lindsay decided to call it a night, and politely suggested to the three younger boys that they should turn in too and let Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I have some time without them around to 'do whatever' before we went to bed too. We opted for a movie once it was just the four of us; and then we wrapped up our night by splitting up to take care of the clean-up in the lounge and kitchen – and to have a bit of minor make-out time before the boys went to their rooms on the second floor and Rowen and I got changed and hopped into bed with Mandy. We've had a nice little girl chat while I've been doing my nightly computer checks and this update; but Rowen's dozed off now and I'll join her in nap mode as soon as I'm finished with this.

Okay, I'm done; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

I guess the first thing I need to mention about today is that winter stopped in for a visit overnight. We didn't get snow, and there isn't any in the forecast, but it was a bit shocking to have the temperature in the low teens this morning with a wind chill hovering around zero most of the day – especially after having the temperature in the fifties for Christmas and Boxing Day!

That's why we spent most of our play day indoors – though in my case; there was some work involved with morning chores that included helping out before and after the major breakfast effort needed to feed our gang of guests. Michael and Tim can eat a lot, but add in Patrick, Scott, and Ryan; and it's scary to see how many pancakes and pounds of bacon they can eat in one sitting. Mom had to go shopping today to re-stock the fridge and freezer!

We didn't have all of the kids and tweens staying with us all day, but we did have the entire gang until after lunch; and Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Susan stayed with the twins until just before dinnertime. Rowen and Tim had other plans for dinner and the evening too; which is why Michael and I got to spend the evening with just Ethan and Ehlana to hang out with while Mom and Dad worked in the office again. I wasn't the only teen helping out with the work this morning, but Michael, Tim, and Rowen did get to have more play time. That was mostly video gaming for the guys and playing with toys for Rowen; but they all had fun while helping to keep the younger kids entertained.

Lunch was sandwiches and soup, and an easy clean-up, so we were able to get back to the playing fairly quickly while Mom went out to do some running around. We lost all of the older kids then too; and Mom even dropped a few of them off at homes or stores on her way to the grocery store. By the way, I was half-joking about the re-supply thing – Mom was doing her shopping today anyway so that she wouldn't have to fight the rush tomorrow for anything except our holiday bakery order that won't be ready until tomorrow.

While she was away, video gaming was at the top of the fun list for the guys again; though football was added into the mix once the first bowl game of the day started. I expect that's what Tim and Rowen spent the evening doing too since they were hanging out with his family; but Michael and I found other things to do instead of watching football – particularly after we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night. The alone time with Michael was my favorite part of the day, but we also didn't stay up late either because he needed to get home and we both need to get some extra sleep so that we'll be ready for New Year's Eve tomorrow night. Michael went home at the same time that Mom and Dad were packing up their work for the night too. Dad's going into the office for an hour or two in the morning; but then he's done for the week. Maybe we'll even manage to spend some time together over the next four and a half days!

Don't laugh – it could happen!

Anyway, I've skipped a lot of the details of the play time and action around here today, but I really do want to get the extra sleep tonight because it is going to be a very busy day tomorrow with a lot of work to do here at home and at the Inn for the New Year's Eve dinner and party there – and for the New Year's Day party that Mom and Dad are hosting here on Thursday. I'm going to be helping out a lot at both parties; but I'm sure we'll have lots of fun even with the extra work. I'll let you know how that goes, but that's all I have for tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy last day of 2014!

This is going to be a short update because I don't have much news yet as of when I'm writing this recap. It's shortly after lunchtime, and I'm getting ready for the New Year's Eve dinner and party right now because I need to get to the Inn to help out with the prep work and decorating for the party. I'll be working with Michael, Rebecca, and the rest of their family all evening too; though we'll take turns with having dinner and getting some party time too in between the cooking and cleaning.

It's been another cold day outside, but then I've been indoors all morning anyway. Mom ended up staying in too and let Dad take care of the bakery pick-up and grabbing a few last minute additions to her grocery and supply needs for the rest of the week; and we spent three solid hours getting the house cleaned and ready for our New Year's Day party – including guest bedrooms in case we need them for sleeping kids or worn-out parents.

I'll add in the New Year's Eve report tomorrow night, but I can assure you that Michael and I are going to have fun – and we'll be doing a planned sofa sleepover whenever we do get home after closing the Inn for the night. That probably won't happen until three-thirty or four in the morning, so we're only talking about having a nap together anyway; but we definitely want to have a great start to our first day of the New Year; and going to sleep and waking up in Michael's arms is my idea of a perfect start to any day! ;^)

Okay, I really need to finish getting dressed up and ready to go; so that's all for now. Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!
***Notes***

Thank-you for visiting the Heirs of the Magi world, and spending time with us in Witch Falls!

Cassie's Journals are originally posted on the Heirs of the Magi Blog, and will cover the time between the end of Magi Master and the start of Magi Ascension; which continues the Heirs of the Magi story from Cassie's high school graduation in June, 2018. Cassie's 2011 and 2012 Journals are also available for free at my  Smashwords Author Page. Magi Ascension – Part One: The Ascension Begins has hust been released in time for Christmas 2014; and is available at Smashwords and many of the major E-book retailers.
