Cassie's Journal - April 29, 2013

I’d like to start this report by mentioning that it seemed noticeably quieter today with our Grade Eight friends away on their trip.  Their absence was probably most notable for my classmates and me, but when about eight percent of your entire school population is gone; everyone notices.

That didn’t keep any of us from enjoying an absolutely beautiful, hot spring day, and for me, that started with Tai Chi by the river with Mom and Dad.  We had a standard weekday morning breakfast, and then I met up with Rowen for the walk to school.  If she was coordinating anything with Michael, she did that before I got to her house, but whatever the reason; he just happened to be leaving his house and crossing the road exactly on time to meet up with us; and we walked the rest of the way to school together.

Considering the stories on the school grapevine this morning, it would have been better for him if he hadn’t; since showing up there in the company of both of the girls being talked about in those news flashes certainly had the guys razzing him right from the moment he moved on to hang out with Tim and the rest of their usual gang.  Rowen and I got teased a bit too, but she didn’t try defending herself by using ‘the kiss’ story; and that news hadn’t made the rounds yet – at least as of the end of last class yesterday.  Since I’m sure Miranda probably heard about it from Mom or Aunt Leanne by this morning, it’ll definitely be something that some of the kids and teens hear about from their parents or neighbors by sometime tonight.

That’s just the way it is in small towns, and though it can sometimes be a pain; I wouldn’t trade that little inconvenience for anything if it meant changing anything else about Witch Falls.

The great weather meant that we got to have Phys-Ed class outdoors, and soccer was the name of the game.  There weren’t any team picking games today, but Rowen and I were on the winning team, and we rounded out the top three scorers with Michael; which gave our friends some more ammunition to tease us with.  I mostly managed to avoid any tween issues during lunchtime, and while Rowen and I had lunch with some of the other girls; we spent the rest of the break just wandering around and not doing much of anything except enjoying the sunshine.

The walk to school this morning might have been a coincidence, but the after school snack, study, and biking with Michael and Tim couldn’t have been unless Mom just happened to have extra, fresh-today Olde Bakery treats; the fridge in my lounge miraculously filled itself with the boys’ favorite drinks; and some comedian tuned my television to one of the music stations that mostly just has soft ballads on its playlist so that was the first thing we heard when I turned it on for some background music vids.  Tim teased me about the music for a while, and there was nothing I could do, since explaining my matchmaking conspiracy theory would have only given him something worse than my taste in music to tease me – and Michael – about.

Getting our homework out of the way didn’t take too long, but adding Tim to the group did add a little extra time to our study session too.  Though he’s not at the top of our class, at least academically, Tim is really smart – he’s just an indifferent student; and can coast along without trying very hard.  That’s why it didn’t take a lot longer to get our homework done – Tim was trying to keep up with the rest of us for speed, but not necessarily accuracy or thoroughness.  He does get straight A’s too; but only in the subjects he actually likes.

I’d pretty much ignored it this weekend, though I’d included it in my usual nightly news, sports, and entertainment checks, but Michael and Tim needed to talk about the NFL draft.  Tim was surprised that Rowen and I could actually contribute to that conversation, but he shouldn’t have been – it’s not as if we haven’t talked football with them before.  Let’s not go into the details – if you’re interested in the results from this year, I’m sure you can find them on the web somewhere.  Maybe this will be the last I hear about football until the season starts in August, but I won’t hold my breath on that.  Michael and Tim are already getting fired up about our school team’s chances for Kyle’s senior year.

After getting our homework finished, we went biking at the park.  That was one of the reasons why Tim wasn’t hanging out with Nora after school – he wanted to bike the trails in the woods; and she didn’t want to get muddy, dirty, or hurt trying to do that with him.  Tim likes to show off at everything he’s good at doing almost as much as he likes to ‘talk trash’ about his amazing abilities.  I don’t do any of that bragging, but I’m sure you can guess that I do get fired up and competitive.  Michael and Rowen are a lot alike for things like this.  They’re just as competitive, but if you’re not paying attention, you might not even notice that they were keeping up with Tim as easily as I was; and doing the jumps and tricks as well or better than we were.

There were a lot of kids and teens at the park, and the trails were very popular with the guys, but there weren’t very many girls out there.  We had to deal with a few line-ups for the favorite trails, and a few of them you only ride one at a time in case there is a fall or accident, since those problems usually happen in places where a following rider would not be able to stop.  The fact that Rowen and I never had a problem with any of the jumps earned us some notice and points; but not in the way Rowen would like at least one guy in particular to notice her.

This is a good time to mention that we had a pair of shadows again today.  Patrick and Scott were almost always nearby.  They like riding the trails as much as any of the guys, but I don’t need to guess that witnessing the little kiss I gave Michael last night is the main reason for why Patrick felt the need to keep an eye on us today; with the ‘us’ being Michael and me.  I doubt there will be anything I can do to help him, but eventually, whenever I do cross over; Patrick will be crushed to find out that I am not going to be the girl for him.  That won’t be fun for him, but then it won’t be fun for Rowen and I to have him and Scott trailing around after us everywhere we go either, so I hope this doesn’t become a habit with them.

When it was time to head home again, we had a little stop at Michael’s house before splitting up; and I stayed for a little chat with Miranda and Jacob while Rowen and Tim moved on to meet up with their parents at the shop and computer store.  Rowen was grinning at me when they left, but my decision to stay for a little visit was entirely because I knew Miranda was going to need to tease me about kissing her son last night; and it was a lot easier to deal with that in the relative privacy of their home than it would have been if I’d waited until the next time I saw her at the Inn or church.

She’d pretty much finished her joke repertoire by the time Jake and Stephanie got home from whatever they’d been doing after school, and I took that opportunity to escape and head home too.  I did at least get the last laugh after Miranda tried the “What, no goodbye kisses?” line; and I gave Jacob and hug and kiss on my way out.

That didn’t end up being the last time I spent time with Michael and his parents today.  After having a barbeque dinner on the back porch and cleaning up, Ethan and Ehlana wanted to go to the park to play; and though Dad had some work to get done, he and Mom both decided to come and play with us for a while too.  We added Jacob, Miranda, and Michael to our group after Ethan and Ehlana needed to stop in for a front porch visit; and a “come too” and some twin hugs and kisses were all my brother and sister needed to get three more playmates.

Mom has her family business work with Miranda, and they still do regular breaks together at least once a week, but we don’t seem to find much time to just hang out together with both families.  I think we should do that more often, but don’t take that the wrong way – we have fun whenever we do get together; and I really love spending time with our friends.  The playground was our first stop, and we played there for a half hour or so; went for a walk around the park on the trail; and wrapped up with another twenty minutes of mostly swing and slide action before heading home again.

Jake and Stephanie had been home, but hadn’t wanted to go to the park with us for some reason.  I’ll just pretend that I don’t know why they were smiling so brightly after getting nearly two hours of alone time.  Miranda invited us to stay with them for a snack and drinks, so we did that out on their back porch, but then Dad needed to get home to his work; and Mom and I kept busy doing Magi lessons and getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for bed while he was busy with that.

If you’re wondering about why there weren’t any ‘Michael and me’ moments included in that part of the recap; it’s because there weren’t any – or at least there weren’t any like everyone else seems to think there should be.  Ethan and Ehlana tried to instigate a few of those moments, but they didn’t succeed, and I’m glad that we all had fun together without any tween drama.

The evening play time and snack break changed up my usual nightly routine, and so did my need for another visit with my Jacuzzi after all of the biking and play time.  I was able to multi-task while doing that, but it’s still past two now; and I didn’t quite get everything finished that I wanted to work on tonight.  There isn’t anything exciting to report from my studies, but I got to have a short chat with Rebecca and Jenny after they were in their hotel room for the night.  It sounds like they’re having fun on their trip, but Jenny and Shane – and some of the other Grade Eight couples – might be having a bit too much fun.  Hopefully Rebecca won’t need to find somewhere else to hang out for the rest of the week every time Jenny and Shane want to be in there making out.

That isn’t a train of thought I want to be following when I go to sleep, so let’s move along.  The actual education parts of their trip will include all of the usual tours; and they went to the Washington monument and the Smithsonian American History Museum today.  I hope they learned something on those tours, but I have no idea whether they did from our chat, since Jenny mostly just wanted to talk about the cute boys they saw or met today – her interest in the strictly for her best friend’s benefit; since she already has a boyfriend.

That didn’t exactly end up changing the subject, but I need to get some sleep, so I’ll wrap this up now and try to do that.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 28, 2013

We’ve had a beautiful, warm spring day.  It was a bit chilly this morning, but Mom, Dad, and I went outside for Tai Chi anyway.

Sunday mornings with a house full of guests aren’t really any different for our family in Granite Park than they are in Witch Falls; and we tag-teamed our way through breakfast, getting everyone ready for church; and the post-meal clean-up before loading up into the minivan and SUV and heading over to the church.  That was a fun couple of hours for me, partly because it was really interesting comparing the church that Uncle Blaine and Aunt Grace had grown up attending with their parents to ours.  I loved getting to meet some of their childhood friends, and there were a few couples that we were introduced to who would be coming to Witch Falls for the wedding in July.

It was a bit different for Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan, since they hadn’t started going to that church until they were young adults, but after decades of regular attendance with their kids and eventually their grandchildren too; they knew everyone, and had lots of friends there.  As for the church service, it was obvious why their church was popular.  They have an awesome praise team, and a pair of charismatic Ministers.  Their ‘senior’ Pastor is about the same age as Mom and Dad, and he and his wife have three young children close to Jaimie’s and Kaitlyn’s age.  The ‘youth’ Pastor isn’t really all that much younger than her boss; she’s one of Aunt Grace’s friends; and she and her husband are two of the wedding guests we were introduced to.  Their two kids are younger, and are likely just starting to be playmates for Jayden.  The music was contemporary, and very much the same as at our church, and while the two Pastors had a much more ‘now’ delivery for their lessons and message; those words were just as traditional, well thought out, and biblically based as anything Pastors Lewis or Martha teach at home.

Ethan and Ehlana went to the nursery with Jayden when the kids and teens left for Sunday school, but I stayed in the sanctuary.  Aunt Leanne and Aunt Grace were partly responsible for that, thanks to their whispered, running commentary advising me of every boy close to my age who was watching me this morning.  The dinnertime tweeird zone yesterday was more than enough for me, and while I’m always happy to meet new people, I didn’t want to rock any tween boats today.  It’s funny that Aunt Leanne had no problem finding the boys who were watching me, but didn’t notice that in several of those cases, the girls with those boys were watching too, and not happy about the attention I was getting from ‘their’ boys.

What was even scarier than all of that was thinking about what it’s going to be like for me in Witch Falls once Aunt Grace is living there.  She and Aunt Leanne can be a bit scary when they’re working together like that – as if Aunt Leanne doesn’t have enough co-conspirators already.  Let’s hope that weddings, honeymoons, and babies keep them to busy to worry about little ‘ole me for a while!

We all went back to Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison’s house for lunch, but I went home with Aunt Grace, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne first so that they could all get changed; we could pick up Aunt Leanne’s and Uncle Adam’s luggage; and I could get a chance to see Aunt Grace’s apartment – the one she’d be moving out of in less than two months.  I really wanted to do that despite being sure that I’d be getting teased about boys while my aunts had me alone.  Let’s skip that part of the recap, and I’ll just report on Aunt Grace’s apartment instead.  Her home is a nice, but fairly standard high-rise unit that reminded me a bit of a couple of the places where Mom and I have lived, but her building is also part of a little community with two other apartment buildings and several blocks lined with rows of townhomes.  There were two big playgrounds that Aunt Grace told me Jaimie and Kaitlyn loved going to whenever they visited her; and a large pool that she admitted she’d never been in even once – mostly because she preferred borrowing Uncle Blaine’s pool when she felt the urge for a swim.

That probably disappointed most of the guys in her neighborhood, but let’s not go there – even though Aunt Leanne did while we were talking about it.

We didn’t spend much time at the apartment, but lunch was already close to being ready by the time we got to Uncle Blaine’s house and transferred the luggage from Aunt Grace’s car to Mom’s minivan.  I don’t think there was any space that wasn’t used by the time everything was loaded except for around the front seats.  It’s a good thing that some of the purchases from yesterday didn’t need to come home with us now, or we’d have needed to buy a trailer.

Lunch was served in the back yard, and Jaimie and Kaitlyn had me do a little picnic with them in the little wooden fort that was the centerpiece of their playground equipment.  Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were with us for part of the time, but they sat at one of the tables to eat first.  I mostly played with my younger cousins, brother, and sister until it was time to head for home, and though that got me out of helping with the lunch clean-up; I don’t think it was any less work.  We were finished the goodbye hugs and kisses; in the van; and ready to pull out of the driveway by shortly before two o’clock.

The drive home was actually quick and uneventful; and Uncle Adam pulled into his driveway at a few minutes after five.  I was barely out of the van when Rowen came over from her house; as excited as I was to be back together again.  She helped us with unloading Uncle Adam’s and Aunt Leanne’s things, and then we walked over to my house with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad brought the van home.  We had more unpacking to do, and once everything was put away; Rowen helped me carry my luggage and computer up to my room, and helped me get ready for the late buffet dinner at the Inn that we were both going to with our families.

That was when I found my little welcome home surprise, and got the best parts of Rowen’s weekend recap.

The little gift was an Olde Bakery Witch cookie that was on my pillow with a ‘Welcome Home’ sticky note on it, and the surprise was that Michael had left it there for me.  That was sweet – and delicious – but what really touched me was finding out that Rowen and Michael had spent quite a bit of time together while I was away.  Yes, his best friend was busy all weekend too, so they weren’t hanging out together, but while he didn’t admit it to Rowen; she and I both knew that he went looking for her at the computer store specifically because he knew she’d be bored while I was away.

They went for bike rides on Saturday and Sunday afternoon; he helped her with taking care of Mandy; they hung out with some of the teens and tweens for a while by the falls on Saturday night; and had both afternoon snack breaks at the Inn.  Those last two news flashes are out on the town gossip network, and Rowen thinks it’s funny that anyone is thinking that she might be Michael’s next girlfriend.  That, and some other hints here and there, suggested that there was some of her weekend story that I wasn’t going to be told about.  I just hope she wasn’t busy trying to earn her junior matchmaking badge from Aunt Leanne while I was gone.

If the rumors about her and Michael weren’t enough for him, I’m sure there will be more floating around by tomorrow; since my first order of business after we got to the Inn was to go into the kitchen and give him a big, enthusiastic hug that was all about thanking him for caring about, and entertaining, my best friend while I was gone.  I don’t care that everyone in the kitchen at the time was grinning at us; or that Michael blushed while looking very happy too; and let Miranda and Aunt Leanne tease me all they wanted.  Michael deserved that hug, and that’s all there is to it.  I had hugs for the rest of his family and our friends too, and by the time I met up with the rest of our dinner group again in the dining room; Grandpa and Grandma were there too; and we started another round of welcome home hugs and kisses.

The next hour and a half or so was just a whirlwind.  Rowen and I were at the kids’ table with Patrick, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, and Scott and Lindsay Faulkner.  While the Faulkners and Palmers had their own dinner group tonight, we weren’t surprised when Patrick wanted Scott to sit with us; and Lindsay picked joining us over hanging out with her teen cousins.  The boys mostly kept their usual antics to a minimum, though there were still some muted prank attempts and whispered jokes and comments aimed at impressing the rest of us – or just gross us out.

I’m sure it was just a coincidence that Miranda was sending Michael home just when we were ready to walk home too, but that was okay with me; since it gave me a chance to talk to him for a few minutes.  There’s no doubt that I gave Aunt Leanne more ammunition to use against me, but after leaving the Inn, I took Michael’s hand and led him ahead of the rest of the group so that I could have that little chat without being overheard.  While thanking him for helping Rowen to have a fun weekend was the reason for doing that, his side of their weekend recap was suspiciously lacking in certain details too; and what I was sensing empathically through our linked hands pretty much confirmed that Rowen was working on that junior matchmaking badge.

Aunt Leanne whistled at us when I hugged him goodnight when we reached the sidewalk leading up to their house.  We both laughed, and I must have temporarily lost my mind or something because after stepping back and looking into those smiling, beautiful blue eyes; I leaned in again and kissed him.  It was just a little peck, but it was on the lips and surprised him as much as it surprised me.  It also had the added bonus of leaving Aunt Leanne speechless as the rest of my family, Rowen, and her family caught up with us – though that only lasted until we got home and Aunt Leanne needed to come inside for a few minutes and tease me about it before letting Uncle Adam take her home.

Pleading temporary insanity didn’t help me, and Aunt Leanne would not believe my insistence that I’m not crossing over.  Neither did Rowen, though we didn’t talk about it until later since she’d needed to go home with her parents after hugging me goodnight outside of my house.  I could tell from out little bedtime text-chat that she was still grinning about that little kiss – and probably patting herself on the back.

Let them believe what they want.  It doesn’t matter how nice it felt holding Michael’s hand as we walked home; and the sparks flying from that little peck of a kiss was probably just static electricity from my sweater because of the hug.  I am definitely not crossing over.

I’m not!

The good news for the rest of my night was that the travel time on Friday and this afternoon gave me lots of time to get my homework, and my usual school night archive and language work out of the way.  The bad news is that I didn’t have that to keep my mind busy.  I helped Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana to bed so that Dad could get some work done in the office.  After that, it was time for some quality Jacuzzi action, followed by a keyboard practice before climbing into bed with Mandy for the night.  Rowen and I had our little chat then while I was doing the usual bedtime computer checks, but she’s probably been sleeping for a half hour or so by now.  I had some email to deal with, including one from Rebecca that included some pictures; her first impressions of Washington; and a couple of travel stories.  None of that helped to distract me very much, and the not dreaming of bunnies thing is not working for me tonight; but I’m ready to wrap this up and try to get some sleep even with the risk of tweeird zone dreams, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out.

P.S.  I am not crossing over!

Cassie's Journal - April 27, 2013

It was still raining this morning, and since we didn’t really have anywhere with enough open space to do it; we skipped Tai Chi this morning.  Uncle Blaine and Dad cooked breakfast with some supervision from Jayden and Ethan while ‘the girls’ all got ready for a big day of shopping and fun.

While I’m thinking about that, and that meal, it’s probably a good time to write a bit more about my cousins’ beautiful house.  It could be because I’m used to being in houses with ‘traditional’ rooms that I think in those terms, but the kitchen here is just part of one big, open Great Room that includes the kitchen, dining room, and living room.  I love the design, and it’s awesome to be able to see and hear everything that’s going on in all three rooms.  That might be a bit crazy on a holiday weekend with all of our family together, but I think it would still be fun to try it out sometime.  The windows and patio door offer a great view of their beautifully landscaped back yard.  Unless the rain stops, Jaimie and Kaitlyn won’t be taking me out to play on the big, fancy playground set-up they have in the back corner of the yard; and I think we should make our next trip here in the summertime so we can try out the pool that Uncle Blaine hasn’t been able to open yet because of the weather so far this spring.

I’m definitely spoiled to have my amazing bedroom, and I love our own home, but since that’ll be Ethan’s home some day; I could really love a house like this one.  That’s getting dangerously close to thinking about part of my future that I don’t want to have front and center in my mind on a day when we’ll be spending a lot of time dealing with Aunt Grace’s wedding; so let’s move along.

We had breakfast; Aunt Alison, Mom, and I were on the clean-up crew while Jaimie and Kaitlyn took care of Jayden and the twins; and then we headed over to the Mall to meet up with Aunt Grace, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam.  Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan met up with us in time for lunch, but were skipping the morning part of the shopping trip.  This may be shocking, but I didn’t actually buy much for myself today.  I picked up gifts for upcoming birthdays and other important occasions – like Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s anniversary; there was a perfect ‘missed my best friend’ gift that insisted on coming home with me; and I bought at least one thing for each of my younger cousins, brother, and sister.  I spent as much time helping out with them so that Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Aunt Alison could shop with Aunt Grace; and we actually tried to stay out of their way as much as possible.

Aunt Leanne could be a great wedding planner if there was enough business for that sort of thing in Witch Falls – and she didn’t already have enough on the go.  She has everything for Aunt Grace and Mark’s wedding ahead of schedule, and that made the work they needed to get done today mostly fun.  The one thing that did feel strange was not having Mark here with us too.  Uncle Adam had a few things to take care of for him that was mostly so Mark wouldn’t need to send extra shipments halfway across the country.  We – the kids – were shopping with the guys nearly as much as when we were all together, and that turned out to be a theme through until dinnertime.

After meeting up with Grandma Mercy and Uncle Duncan, we had lunch in the food court, and then Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and I found out that we were going to an afternoon matinee at the movie theater with the Dads and Uncles while the girls were busy with more wedding shopping and work; and the grandparents were taking care of Jayden and the twins.  I’m sure that Ethan and Ehlana would have loved to go too, but needed to play normal toddlers instead.

There weren’t a lot of kid-friendly show options, so we went to see The Croods.  I was about to write that it was a fun little film, but wouldn’t make my top-ten list; and then it occurred to me that I actually haven’t seem many more than ten movies at the theater in my entire life, and it would be in the top ten of that particular list.  I seriously need to get out more often!

The movie-going members of our family headed home from the theater, and we met up with the grandparents and toddlers there.  It had stopped raining by then, so Jaimie and Kaitlyn wanted to play outside while we waited for the Moms and Aunts to get home too.  Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana came outside too with some help from Dad, Uncle Blaine, and Uncle Adam; and we were able to play for nearly an hour before we needed to get ready to go out for dinner.  That decision had mostly be made because Mom and I – and Ethan and Ehlana – got to meet some of the members of Grandma Mercy’s and Aunt Alison’s families; and that was too many people to have over for dinner at Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison’s house.

The restaurant was a nice, family-friendly place with a wide-ranging menu.  I was at a kids’ table with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Ethan, Ehlana, Jayden, and six other kids – including two who were my age.  I had fun, but spent a fair bit of that next two hours or so in the tweeird zone – along with proving that I’m small-town, and too nice.  I can live with that even if it costs me cool points with the more sophisticated and worldly city tweens.

Noelle and Tyler are both cousins to Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden; but one is through Aunt Alison’s family, and the other is through Grandma Mercy’s.  The tweeird zone moments began almost immediately from the time the three of us were introduced; though I guess Noelle and Tyler had met before when they were both quite a bit younger.  I don’t want to get into too much detail about it, but Tyler was happily flirting with Noelle and me; and though Noelle seemed to be flattered, if not really interested; I was mostly just annoyed.  That kind of thing is bad enough to deal with from my side of the ‘crossing over’ line, but it must really be a pain on the other side.  I didn’t have much of anything in common with either Noelle or Tyler, and the more we learned about each other; the fewer tween status points I earned.

I am aware that in some tween and teen circles that it’s a crime to be one of the top academic students, so that was one strike against me.  Being nice to my younger cousins, brother, and sister was snickered at; and I got ‘the look’ several times while Tyler or Noelle were watching me interact with the adults.  If you’ve ever been a teen or tween, you know what I mean by that, and though I’ll never think it’s fair; I am used to being on the receiving end of it from time-to-time.

Thankfully, Jaimie and Kaitlyn were oblivious to the tween drama, and kept me entertained while we ate and took care of Jayden and the twins.  Ethan and Ehlana knew what was going on, and ran some interference for me with Noelle and Tyler when they could.  Aunt Leanne was busy, but I don’t think she’d have tried any matchmaking fun and games tonight anyway.

Wow, I’m actually hitting the wall right now; so let’s speed this up a bit.  We had dinner, and then we – the Proctors and Carringtons – went back to Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison’s house for the rest of the evening.  We went for a walk to the closest play park; spent nearly an hour there; and then walked home again.  Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana were in bed about a half hour after that, and Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and I stayed up with the adults until Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan were ready to go home.  I have Jaimie for my cuddle buddy tonight, and she managed to stay awake and talk to me for nearly twenty minutes before passing out.

I guess that’s really about it, and I’m ready to crash too, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 26, 2013

I go to school every day in a building that Uncle Blaine designed, and have seen everything he’s made for our future plans projects in Witch Falls, but that’s a lot different than spending the night in the house he made for his own family.  It’s been really great to finally get to spend a weekend in Granite Park; though getting there tonight wasn’t so much fun.

We haven’t actually done much since getting here, but before I get to that; let’s do the rest of the daily recap first.

The rain had already started falling by the time we got up for Tai Chi this morning.  I’m pretty sure this the wettest spring we’ve had here since Mom and I moved to Witch Falls; and I am way-past being ready for some consecutive days of sun and warm whenever Mother Nature decides to cooperate.  At least we got to wind down the school week with our Day One schedule classes.  Add in a bonus, rainy-day music practice with Rowen and Michael; and I had a pretty good day.  Rowen was working at the computer store after school to make up for taking Thursday off, but I had time to stop in for a visit before heading home; and we had our snack break there with her parents and brother.

Once I did get home, I needed to pack for our trip; and Ethan and Ehlana helped me out with that while Mom was busy dealing with a few chores that needed to be done before we left.  Dad and Aunt Leanne both came home from the office, and I helped Dad with getting the minivan loaded.  One new change for this trip was having Ethan and Ehlana’s car seats moved to the back bench.  If this trip was any indication; that won’t always be fun for me whenever I need to be sandwiched in between them; though it won’t be a big deal for shorter trips.

Once we were ready to go, our first stop was at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house so we could get their luggage; and then we drove over to the clinic to get Uncle Adam before heading out of town.  We had to wait about fifteen minutes while he dealt with a late walk-in patient, so it was after six by the time he was ready to go.  While I’ve only been to Granite Park once, I know that the travel time should be about three hours; but can be a lot longer depending on the traffic.  The rain made the trip tough enough for Dad and Uncle Adam; the traffic was a mess; and there were three accidents along the way that slowed us down too.  Even with just one stop for fast food and a washroom break, we didn’t get to Granite Park until ten-thirty.

It was still raining when we got to Uncle Blaine’s house, so while Mom, Aunt Leanne, and the twins were sent straight inside; I was recruited to help unload the van.  Uncle Blaine, Grandpa Duncan, and Aunt Grace all helped too; so it didn’t take long to get everything inside – or into Aunt Grace’s car for Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s luggage and computer bag.  While I’m thinking about my aunts, I was going to mention that Doc Johnson is on call this weekend while Uncle Adam is away; and he’s hoping that Aunt Deborah has her baby before Sunday so he can deliver one of his great-grandchildren for the first time.  Aunt Deborah would likely be good with that plan – as long as Uncle Adam and I get back in time to give her the same new baby gift that we gave Mom after Ethan and Ehlana were born.

Moving the story along, once we were all inside, and worked our way through the welcoming hugs and kisses; Jaimie and Kaitlyn wanted to take me on a tour of their house while the adults were visiting and passing Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana around.  That tour started with showing me to my room so I could drop off my suitcase and computer bag, and moved on to their bedrooms; their playroom/family room; and the rest of the house in diminishing order of importance to my cousins.  We eventually ended up in the living room with the rest of our family, and spent the next hour or so having a little visit before Aunt Leanne was tired out and ready to go home with Aunt Grace; and they got ready to head out with Uncle Adam.  Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy decided to go home then too, and once everyone else was gone, I was put in charge of helping Jaimie and Kaitlyn get ready for bed while the parents were busy doing the same with Jayden and the twins.

Dad took care of the bedtime story that we sat in on in Jayden’s room, and then I ended up having a cuddle buddy for the night.  Aunt Alison ended up flipping a coin to avoid an argument with Jaimie and Kaitlyn, and while Jaimie was disappointed; she’ll be doing a sleepover with me tomorrow night.  The good news for me is that while Kaitlyn was very excited to be hanging out with me tonight; she didn’t manage to stay awake for long after we climbed into bed.

I’ve been doing my usual nightly computer checks since she fell asleep, and had a few email to answer before moving on to this update.  I should probably get some sleep.  Jaimie and Kaitlyn assure me we’re going to have a busy, best-ever kind of day tomorrow; so I should make sure I’m ready for all of that fun.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 25, 2013

I should have been getting some extra sleep tonight, but it took a while to get everything done so I’d be ready to go away for the weekend; and that’s only left me with enough time for a long nap.

Everyone in Witch Falls loved getting to have a nice spring weather day; though it was still too cool this morning for Tai Chi by the river.  It was a bit busier than normal around the house this morning.  Mom was going to get some of her errands out of the way today, so Dad and I took turns with her to get Ethan and Ehlana ready for a bonus morning at KidZone while she was busy; and that slowed me down enough that Rowen collected me on her way to school instead of either meeting outside or at her house like we usually did.

I haven’t written about it yet this week, but the big story around the school today is the upcoming Grade Eight trip.  It’s one of just two major trips that happen at our school, with the other being the Grade Twelve, senior class trip in mid-May.  While the Senior class students get to choose where they go; the Grade Eight trip is always to Washington D.C.  This year, it’s a bigger deal for the Grade Seven students because we’re just a year away from it being our turn; and because we all have close friends who will be on the trip.  Rebecca and Jenny are getting really fired up now, and while I haven’t thought about it much; they’ll be in Washington by the time I get home from Granite Park on Sunday night.

There isn’t much else to report from school.  We had another test this morning, and an assignment due.  Rowen, Michael, and I skipped our lunchtime music practice and spent that time outdoors instead.  No, Michael did not hang out with Rowen and me, and that’s probably a good thing; since we spent some of our time skipping – mostly turning the rope – with Jessica Bassett and a few of her friends.  That kind of thing could destroy a guy’s reputation with his buddies!  Thanks to the sunshine, and especially the continuing, complete lack of personal tween drama, I had a really good day at school; but Rowen and I were ready to get outside and do a little bike riding once we were set free for the day and had our homework out of the way.

We biked out to the caves and back, and while it isn’t always fun being a tween, getting taller and stronger does have advantages.  Our developing physical abilities and the new bikes are going to make a big difference with how far we’ll be able to travel on our little outings this spring and summer.  There wasn’t much time to actually explore the caves, but the goal of the ride was to see if we could get out there and back – and to have some quiet girl-chat time while we had the privacy.  Rowen needed to talk about ‘Tommy’ for a while.  I guess there really wasn’t anything specifically new going on with him, but Rowen continues to be amazed and annoyed by just how incredibly dense boys our age can be.  I should mention that Rowen and I do like ‘Tommy’s’ girlfriend; though we’re not close friends with her.  We also certainly know why they’re dating.  What drives Rowen nuts is that they have almost no common interests except for the physical attraction.

Okay, so maybe ‘Tommy’ – and most other guys our age – only thinks about one interest most of the time right now; but you know what I mean.  Rowen has crossed over, so it’s not as if she doesn’t feel that physical attraction too, but she also knows more about ‘Tommy’ than he or anyone else would suspect.  She’s tried teasing me that I have that same thing with Michael, but you could say that about me to varying degrees with everyone I know thanks to my special abilities and photographic memory.  That’s more true for the people closest to me; but only because I have more experiences and memories with them.

Getting back to the story, though, I think Rowen is as upset about not having anything to do this weekend as she is about what, according to the girl-chat network at school, ‘Tommy’ and his girlfriend are doing.  For that, I’ll just mention that one set of parents are going to be out on a date night, and let you figure the rest out for yourselves.  Rowen may especially wish that she was Tommy’s girlfriend for moments like that, but they’re all just in the tweeird zone from my side of the crossing over line perspective.

We ended up keeping Rowen for dinner tonight, and met up with her parents and brother – and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne – before walking over to the Inn for game night.  Aunt Leanne took that opportunity to play matchmaker and tease me about Michael on a regular basis, but we all mostly had fun with that tonight, and Rowen and I topped off a really good afternoon and evening by winning the junior championship.  That was actually because I was having too much fun to pay attention to how we were doing on the scoreboard compared to the other kid and teen teams, but I guess we are getting old enough now that it isn’t a complete shock for our team to win once in a while.  Rowen was almost as fired up about winning as Miranda gets when she wins; so it was fun to see that too.

I needed to do some bonus goodbye hugs and kisses when it was time to go home.  Including Michael in that round of hugs was a tough call, but I decided that hugging him tonight with just our families around was a better option than it would be doing that after school tomorrow before I head out for the weekend.  The jury’s still out as to whether avoiding potential tween drama tomorrow was worth being teased by Aunt Leanne during the entire walk home or not.

It’s been all work since getting home; starting with getting Ethan and Ehlana in and out of the tub; ready for bed; and tucked in for the night.  Mom wanted to do a Magi lesson with me, since we won’t be able to do that for the next couple or three days; so that was next on the list while Dad went to work in the office.  After biking and the little bit of cave exploring we did, I needed to spend some time with my Jacuzzi, so that was next on my to-do list; but I worked on my computer the entire time too.  This time, I started with my language studies; did my nightly computer checks while doing my hair and getting ready for bed; and wrapped up with my archive assignment and a little bit of family business work that came up via email tonight.

That pretty much covers everything for today, and I really do need to get started on that nap, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 24, 2013

For the second day in a row, I don’t really have much to write about.

The rain ended overnight, but we didn’t warm up much today.  It was a quiet day at school, and there’s a good chance that my recent tween drama problems are over now.  Lisa actually smiled at me today once; and she’s talking to me again too.  Rowen and I got our homework out of the way after school, and then we took Ethan and Ehlana to the park for some playground action.  The only changes for me from last night from the time Rowen went home were what we had for dinner and the addition of a couple of hours of family business work.  I wanted to do the extra work tonight because Rowen and I have decided to take tomorrow afternoon off from our jobs because I’ll be away this weekend; and she can put in some extra time at the computer store while I’m gone.  With game night too, I won’t have time to add the extra work to my schedule tomorrow; so getting it out of the way tonight was my best option.

I cut back a bit on the studying after coming up to my room, but that’s mostly because I don’t feel like staying up until two or three o’clock.  There is definitely going to be Malls and shopping on the weekend, and I don’t want to be too tired to enjoy all of the fun!  With that in mind, it’s time to get some sleep, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 23, 2013

It’s time for a super-short report.

We had rain for most of the day.  There isn’t anything exciting to report from school or my after-school family business work.  The rest of my evening has been busy, but just the normal dinner, family time, Magi lessons, and bedtime studying and computing routine.  It’s only heading toward twelve-thirty, but I’ve had enough fun for today, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - April 22, 2013

If Rowen were here tonight, she’d be telling me that my top news story should be having Michael hang out with me in my bedroom after school.

Of course she might skip mentioning that she was there too; and so were Rebecca, Ethan, and Ehlana.  That sort of takes the edge off of a non-story; doesn’t it?

There was actually more to my day before then, though I guess it was fairly standard and uneventful up to that point.  Tai Chi was indoors because it was too cool out for Ethan and Ehlana; and there wasn’t anything exciting going on at home between then and when Rowen met up with me and we headed for school.  The top Grade Seven chat topic today was Brock’s party; and I caught a few jokes directed at Michael about having two girls hanging all over him all evening – and then going home with two other girls.  Michael didn’t seem to mind the jokes and jabs, and I guess that the fact that he’s getting teased about that sort of thing means that we’re all trying to move on after weeks of being very cautious about anything like that about either Michael or Lisa.  It wasn’t raining this morning, so we had Phys-Ed class outside and played soccer.  Rowen and I were outside for most of our lunch break – as were most of the kids and teens.  We went for a walk, and hung out on the bleachers while some of the guys were mostly just goofing off out on the football field.  We had a test and a quiz in two out of three of our afternoon classes, so there isn’t anything exciting to report there – even Dad doesn’t really get excited about the steady stream of A+ marks anymore.

So we’re set free from school for the day, and Rowen and I end up walking home with Rebecca and Michael.  Their best friends are busy with their respective boyfriend and girlfriend; and Rowen easily convinced them to hang out with us instead of going home and doing their homework on their own.  I happen to know that the Olde Bakery treats we had for our snack were leftovers that would have been dessert tonight if Mom hadn’t used them for our snack instead, but my adorable little brother and sister happily helped Rowen out by both entertaining our guests and finding creative little ways to nudge Michael and me together.

We needed to get our homework done before playing with Ethan and Ehlana; and sat at the table in the lounge to do that.  While Rebecca had different assignments that Michael, Rowen, and I did, we all had fun and work really well together.  Rebecca isn’t quite the straight-A student that Michael is, but she’s not far off; and is definitely a better student than Jenny – though that’s mostly because Jenny doesn’t rate school or homework very high on her priority list.  While she’d never admit it, I’m sure that Rebecca liked studying with us more than with Jenny.  Maybe Rowen and I will invite her over more often so she can do that.

Our studying actually takes longer when we have friends over, but that is offset with the bonus fun; and Ethan and Ehlana made sure that we were thoroughly entertained when we were done and could play with them.  They wanted to do a music practice first, and followed that up with some video game action that Michael probably can never tell the guys about.  I doubt that half of his friends even know that there are video games that are geared toward girls or toddlers.  Sesame Street and Lego games just don’t rate the same as the latest fighting and racing games.  Michael and Ethan played some racing games too, though, so that at least won’t be a reputation killer.

I should just skip reporting on those little matchmaking nudges, but Rowen will ask me about it tomorrow; and will just give me a hard time about it if I skip her favorite parts of our day.  She thought that it was very funny every time Ethan or Ehlana would do something that Michael or I had to react to and always ended with us being close together.  Ehlana even pounced on me hard enough to knock me into Michael so that he put an arm out to catch me while holding on to Ethan with the other.  Then there was the running around that ended several times with them leading Michael and me to practically run into each other as we caught them.  It’s funny how that wasn’t a problem when it was Rebecca or Rowen helping with the chase.  There was definitely collusion involved when Michael and I were deserted while dealing with the clean-up in the lounge when it was time for Michael, Rebecca, and Rowen to head home.  Ethan and Ehlana wanted Rebecca and Rowen to take them downstairs to Mom and Dad; and they all looked suspiciously happy when Michael and I joined them in the kitchen.

Again, for the ‘I have not crossed over’ concept-challenged – nothing happened during the four or five minutes that Michael and I were alone.

The rest of my evening has been a fairly standard Monday night.  We had dinner; I was on the clean-up crew; Mom did Magi lessons with Ethan, Ehlana, and me; and we had a little play time before putting the twins to bed for the night.  I’ve been doing my usual school night bedtime studying, and the only news from the computer checks is that the baseball sign-ups for this season were posted on the town intranet tonight.  I’m excited about that because Rowen and I move to the twelve-to-fourteen girls division; and I’m really hoping that we’ll get to play with Rebecca, Jenny, Caroline Landry, and the other girls.  Getting to play for Coach Sarah again would be cool too.

That’s all I have for tonight, and I’m ready to call it a night and get some sleep, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!