Official congratulations, Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam –
you’re pregnant!
Yeah, that kind of news is a bit anti-climactic in our
family by the time it actually becomes public knowledge; but it did still make
for a really fun day too. By the time I
got to start celebrating with my family after school, I was seriously ready for
some fun too; and Rowen needed the distraction.
The day-after Valentine’s Day tween drama that was life in
our Grade Seven class – and around the school – was tougher on Rowen than it
was for me, but there wasn’t a lot of fun moments for either of us to offset
the weird and annoying. For her, it was
all about ‘Tommy’ and his girlfriend.
The girl chat about them included far too many details about their date
last night; and they were so glued to each other all day that it seemed like
they were just taking breaks for their classes while in the middle of some kind
of make-out marathon. Okay, it wasn’t
quite as bad as that sounds, but probably looked worse from Rowen’s
perspective.
I don’t want to know any more than I already do about the
guy talk on days like this, and wish I knew a lot less of the things we heard
whenever we were around for the ongoing girl chats. Once again for the record, there are things I
don’t need or want to know about my classmates and friends! The school gossip network was alive with more
than just the stories making the rounds about the couples in our class, and
while there were a few cute and fun tales, most were either of the ‘date-gone-bad’
or ‘don’t need to know’ variety.
Before moving on, I’d also like to make a general comment on
perspective without going into any specific examples today. There were several cases today that Rowen and
I witnessed with girls and boys seeming to have completely different views than
their respective boyfriends or girlfriends on how their Valentine’s Day and
dates went yesterday. In most of those
cases, you wouldn’t need to be a Magi Master, power empath to see that if you’d
just open your normal senses and pay attention.
You also don’t need to have the Sight to see the problems that some of
those couples are headed for sooner or later.
Yes, I now that all of this tween and teen drama is normal,
but all of this does help to explain why I’m in no hurry to join the club; and
a lot of those problems could be avoided if dreams, wishes, wants, and desires
didn’t get in the way of reality so often.
Let’s move on. There
was an after-school ‘We’re pregnant!’ snack break party at my house; and Rowen
was immediately cheered up by Aunt Leanne’s news. Getting to invite her to go with us to the Inn for a celebration dinner was a bonus; and we decided
to do another sleepover to go along with our post-dinner movie night plans. We had time to get our homework out of the
way; go over to Rowen’s house and repack her overnight bag; and have a little
play time with Ehlana while the three of us got ready to go out to the Inn.
Friday nights are busy for all of the store owners in town,
so we weren’t able to have dinner tonight with most of Aunt Leanne and Uncle
Adam’s regular group of friends, but Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and a few other
friends like the Nortons were able to join us on short notice. After having a full house for Valentine’s
Day, it was a really quiet Friday night at the Inn – quiet enough that Miranda,
Rebecca, and Michael all had dinner with us too. Pregnancy didn’t keep Aunt Leanne from making
a couple of comments to Michael and me about that – especially since he and
Rebecca sat with Rowen, Ethan, Ehlana, the three Norton kids, and me.
Miranda was happy to join in and tease him about having
dinner with girls two nights in a row, and by the time they were finished
having their fun with us; we were both worried about whether we’d be back in
tween trouble again despite the fact that we weren’t doing anything to deserve
it; and were only sitting next to each other because Ethan wanted him to sit
next to him, and I was helping Ehlana with her dinner. I won’t comment on Rowen’s eagerness to
switch seats to help Ethan out with that – or why she might have been grinning at
me so often from that moment until Michael was able to escape back into the
kitchen after dessert.
I know Emma Norton fairly well, and talk to her once or
twice nearly every day when I see her around at school, but hardly ever spend
any time with her brothers, Lucas and Benjamin.
Lucas is in Rebecca and Jenny’s class, and seemed happy to have Rebecca
to talk with while we ate; though he was very quiet, and nearly as shy around
us as Rowen can still be when we’re in bigger groups. Lucas gets his looks more from his mother
than father, and though he’s as strong as any of the ‘farm’ boys; he probably
won’t grow up to be as big as his father. Benjamin is nearly two years younger
than Emma, and is going on nine this year.
He’s got his father’s looks, and does everything in high gear –
something he must have gotten from someone farther back in his family tree;
since his brother, sister, and parents are all practically standing still by
comparison. He was a bit bored, being
stuck at a table with so many girls, but he badgered Lucas and Michael with
endless questions; and occasionally trying to get Emma riled up.
I’m sure you know this already, Ethan, but if you decide to
learn how to be a brother from guys like Benjamin, Patrick, and Scott; Ehlana
and I will quickly prove to you that would be a very bad plan.
Sitting at the kids table kept us out of the loop for most
of the conversations going on among the adults, but Rowen, Ethan, Ehlana, and I
heard about some of the highlights after we got home again. We put together drinks and snacks, and then
settled in to watch – you guessed it – a comedy about pregnant women. The show was funny, but our adventures with
Ethan and Ehlana would make for a pretty entertaining film too. Too bad we can’t sell that story to Hollywood!
By the time we’d finished watching the movie, Aunt Leanne
and Aunt Deborah were both tired out, so Uncle Adam and Uncle Nick took them
home shortly after we’d cleaned up from our drinks and snacks. Rowen and I helped Mom and Dad with Ethan and
Ehlana’s bedtime routine, and then we came up to my room for the rest of the
night. Rowen’s borrowing my Jacuzzi
right now, so I’ve been hanging out with Mandy and getting my nightly computing
out of the way before we go watch another movie in the lounge once we’re both
ready for bed. There were some email to
catch up on that were either Valentine’s Day or baby-related.
Violet had managed to enjoy her Valentine’s Day even without
getting to spend time with Dillon; Dawn, Kaitlyn, and Jaimie all wanted to know
what I thought about Aunt Leanne’s pregnancy; and Aunt Grace and Mark both had
email for me that included Valentine’s Day updates and baby commentary on the
news from Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam. While
getting teased by Aunt Leanne and Miranda earlier wasn’t much fun for me, I did
think that Aunt Grace’s jokes about pregnant women and weddings were
funny. Aunt Leanne will too, and I doubt
she’ll be anywhere near as worried as Mom was about how she’ll look in whatever
gowns they end up picking out for the bridal party. I’ll get around to a wedding update sometime
soon, but it sounds like Rowen’s just about finished in the bathroom, so I’m
going to wrap this up and get on with having a little more fun before we get
some sleep.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
