The top story around town today was the news that Natalie
and Derrick Taylor are going to have a baby.
Jokes are flying that after finding out that Amy and Jared Spencer –
Natalie’s brother and sister-in-law – were expecting just before Thanksgiving;
they decided to get started on having their family too. It doesn’t sound like they’re denying that
was at least part of the equation, though they insisted that was mostly because
they liked the idea of having cousins that were close in age – especially since
Jared and Derrick worked the farm together.
While that news made the rounds at school through Amy and
the other teachers, and was popular with the girls; football stayed the number
one topic among the guys for another day.
The Championship game loss didn’t keep our team’s players from being
treated like royalty, and though everyone was still disappointed; next season
was going to be ‘the year’ for sure. For
the girls, baby news had to share chat time with shopping trip and birthday
party recaps; and the Christmas dance on Friday was heading for number one with
a bullet on the school grapevine network.
On the school work front, we had one test; a pop quiz; and
spent half of our music class having a theory lesson. That didn’t exactly make for the most
exciting Monday ever, but it was still a good day. Rowen and I did our homework after school;
then spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the lounge with Ethan and
Ehlana. The temperature had dropped
below freezing last night, and didn’t really warm up much all day. Ethan was disappointed that he didn’t get to
play football with the guys, but Ehlana helped him get over that by playing a
little telekinetic video football for a while instead.
We were back to our usual Monday night healing lesson and
family business meeting after dinner tonight.
It was probably a bit risky for me to go there, but when baby talk came
up, I couldn’t resist teasing Aunt Leanne, and asking her why she didn’t join
the expecting mothers club to give Ethan and Ehlana, or Aunt Deborah and Uncle
Nick’s baby, a cousin their own age the way that the Taylors and Spencers were
doing. Her non-answer included a
suggestion that I go out and get a love life before trying to push hers along
to the next level; and an offer to help me out with that.
Yes, she’s quick; but I still won the round tonight! It has to happen once in a while.
Our healing lessons are always fun, but I think we’re
getting close to the point where Uncle Adam won’t need to do them regularly with
Mom anymore. There’s always more to
learn from the archives, but he’ll be able to do that on his own; and even with
his medical training to help, he won’t be able to do everything that a Magi
Master healer can. Ehlana’s hoping he’ll
be done soon and can spend more time doing research with her instead, but since
we haven’t even started building their lab yet; I think we’ve got a bit of time
to make that little transition.
The lab was on the agenda for our meeting, and the
ground-breaking is tentatively set for late March – probably after March
Break. Dad and Aunt Leanne will be
handling most of the work between now and then to have everything ready, but
our biggest problem for the next few years is going to be getting enough
construction workers and the equipment here to build everything we have
planned. Mom and Dad may get teased a
lot about their dedication and responsibility, but that, and some serious
organization skills sure come in handy for our future plans.
This was our last Monday night lesson and meeting of the
year because Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam will be busy next week getting ready
for his incoming family for the Christmas weekend, and Dad will be in the city;
so we ended up working until nearly ten-thirty before wrapping up and doing the
bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana. I
came up to my room shortly after that; got changed and into bed with Mandy; and
have been working on my computer since then.
Two hours of archive and language studies, followed by my usual nightly
computing, has kept me busy, but I’m about done for the night now; and ready to
crash.
Say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.
“Goodnight, Cassie.”
