Dad surprised Rowen and me when he got home from Crystal Springs and we found out that there were
two matching, shiny new bikes in the back of the truck with our names on
them. Since all of our parents were in
on the surprise, we needed to distribute quite a few hugs and kisses, and that
gave us an excuse to try the bikes out by riding over to Rowen’s house to thank
her Mom and Dad.
It was dark, and too cold to take them out for a real spin,
but we are definitely going to need to find some time to do that this weekend
regardless of the cold, snow, and rain that’s in the forecast. I loved the bike that Mom bought me when we
moved here, but I’ll guess that Dad and Owen picked them out this time. They have a lot of chrome with just a pastel
paint hint here and there to make them look like girl’s bikes; dual suspension
that we could already tell with just our little test ride is way more
comfortable than I expected; twenty-one speeds with easy-to-use grip shifters;
and a bunch of bells and whistles that girls don’t really care about, but
sounded impressive. Oh wait, there was
one other detail we loved – they have aluminum frames; and are amazingly light
even compared to our old, smaller bikes.
Yes, I can guess how that sounds, but even Magi Masters can be just like
any other twelve-year old kid when their parents do something awesome like
this!
Mom and Dad didn’t leave Ethan and Ehlana out of the loop
for the surprise – they have a shiny new bike trailer; though it still needs to
be assembled before we’ll be able to try it out with them. They weren’t quite as excited about the
trailer-in-a-box as Rowen and I were about our bikes, but I’m sure they’ll feel
differently about that when they do get to go on their first ride.
I think I have that out of my system for now, so let’s get
the rest of the daily recap started.
Mom and I were up early for Tai Chi, and that was because of
a combination of extra sleep and being down to hours until Dad would be home
again. Violet didn’t wake up until we
nearly had breakfast ready, and she’d slept in because her evening had not
ended nearly as early as ours had – she and Dillon are running out of time
before she’ll be heading back to Woodvale.
We’d collected Ethan and Ehlana on our way to the kitchen, so they
supervised while Mom and I cooked – again, mostly because Violet was only going
to be home for less than three more days now.
Rowen came over when her parents went to work, and we spent
most of the morning hanging out in my room and the lounge. Nothing newsworthy there, but Rowen’s been
reminding me since I started writing this that I need to include the recap of
our afternoon outing with Ethan and Ehlana.
She thinks that I intentionally suggested that we go to the school
playground to avoid running into Michael; and thinks that it’s hilarious that
he met up with us at the school anyway while on his afternoon break. I sense faint traces of a set-up; but can’t
be positive of the source or sources.
Whatever the real reason might have been, Ethan was very
happy to have Michael there to play with again; and we all had fun until we
started getting cold and went in search of an afternoon snack and hot drinks
break. I wouldn’t doubt for a moment
that Ethan and Ehlana were all for the plan to have that break in the dining
room at the Inn, but I’m also sure that Rowen didn’t really have the
opportunity to actually get that request from either of the twins before
suggesting it when we were leaving the playground.
No, Rowen, I don’t believe that innocent expression you’re
attempting to pull off right now – possibly because you can’t keep that silly
grin off of your face long enough to make it work.
I knew that going there would guarantee that Michael and I
would get teased by Miranda for sure; and possibly by Stephanie if she was
there too; but I went anyway despite the near-certain risk. Miranda didn’t disappoint, and kept everyone
within hearing distance of her comments and jokes entertained for most of the
half hour we were there. Michael made
his escape back to the kitchen about ten seconds after Jake told him to stop
chasing girls and get back to work; and Rowen and I took the twins home shortly
after that.
No, Rowen, I won’t forget to add the little news flash that
you find so much more interesting than I do.
According to Miranda, Michael has spent quite a bit more time hanging
out with us than he’s spent with Lisa this week. Pointing out that he spent a lot of that time
playing with Ethan was not accepted as a mitigating factor; and I don’t exactly
have a viable defense for why he might possibly want to choose playing with
Ethan when there are other toddlers he could entertain instead if he felt the
need – or cousins like Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia Bassett. For me, all that news tells me is that Lisa
is not going to be very happy with me when she finds out – if she hasn’t
already. Things could be a little frosty
for me at Sunday school and again next week.
Getting back on track, after dropping Ethan and Ehlana off
at home, we went over to Rowen’s house to pack her bag for the sleepover, and
then spent the rest of the afternoon at my house. We helped Mom and Aunt Leanne with making
dinner while Violet kept working in the office and Alicia went home; and had
everything ready to go by the time Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and Uncle Adam
came over after the clinic was closed for the night. Aunt Deborah is at about seven and a half
months now, and getting to the stage where she’s ready to get the whole
pregnancy thing done with. She’ll be
finished working at the clinic four weeks from today, unless the baby decides
to arrive early, and though everything with her pregnancy is still going nearly
perfectly; she was definitely tired out tonight after a long day at work.
Having a nap after dinner was an option, and Aunt Deborah
took advantage of her ‘expecting mother’ dinner clean-up exemption to have a
little nap in the living room. Aunt
Leanne could have done that too, but she was having too much fun supervising from
the kitchen table with Ethan and Ehlana while the rest of us worked. She’d been happy to have even more material
from our afternoon adventures to work with while teasing me during dinner; and
the jokes and comments continued off and on all evening – including suggestions
that Dad and Owen took being chased by boys into consideration when picking out
our new bikes.
Dad didn’t exactly deny that when he assured us that being
able to outrun guys hadn’t been ‘a determining factor’ in their choice.
I’d be okay with dreaming about racing my new bike, but not
while being chased by any guys – or a specific boy, Rowen – so let’s continue
with the recap. The new bike test and
break while Dad’s truck was unloaded and everyone got drink and snack refills
took over a half hour; and then we went back to watching the movie in
progress. Aunt Deborah needed to be
taken home to bed after that; Violet went to meet up with Dillon at the Inn and
go home for the rest of the evening with him; and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne
stayed to help with Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime story and to have a little chat
with Mom and Dad after that while Rowen and I came up to my room after helping
out with the post-movie clean-up.
We took turns in the Jacuzzi first, and have been watching a
movie since I finished in the bathroom.
Rowen’s on a teen chick flick kick; and tonight we’re watching the
Center Stage movies – if we manage to stay awake for them. That isn’t keeping us from surfing on our
computers; chatting telepathically with Mandy; and in Rowen’s case – carrying
on with some self-entertaining teasing directed mostly at me. Yes, she’s mostly entertaining me too, but
then I’m not sure it would be possible for me to be annoyed about anything
tonight after the big bike surprise.
While attempting to move away from that topic may be futile
in the real world, I can report that there wasn’t anything newsworthy in my
email inbox tonight. NCAA basketball
continues to be the top sport topic – except that it isn’t here in Witch Falls. Sometimes the news and entertainment
information is filled with nothing but bad news and scandals, but it’s been too
nice of a day to go there; and there isn’t anything critical happening that
will mess up the rest of our March Break, so if you’re really interested in
today’s global current events; check out that section of the archives. I wonder if in your future you’ll think that
our current world leaders are as crazy as I usually do.
Rowen and I both have a busy day tomorrow, and though we’re
not ready to crash yet. Rowen is
currently having fun with a YouTube search on ‘Cassie and Michael’, and wants
me to wrap this up so she can share her favorite results from that search with
me. Since I have pretty much covered the
highlights from today, I don’t really have any excuse not to do that with her,
so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
