It didn’t get all that warm out today, but we did get some
sunshine; and playing outside was an option.
I’m pretty much always in a good mood on the Fridays when
Dad’s going to be home from his week in the city, and though I didn’t get a lot
of sleep last night; I’ve been fired up pretty much since waking up and
exercising with Mom. It was a Day Two
schedule Friday this week, so that’s never as much fun as when we get to have
Phys-Ed and Music classes, but Rowen and I had fun anyway; and I loved getting
a second day in a row with no major tween drama.
We’ll have to see if that lasts through the weekend. Michael wanted to go for a ride on his new
bike after school; and he invited Rowen and I to go along – making the offer
while we were still getting packed up after last class. Tim wanted to go too, and though Nora didn’t;
she did want to hang out with Tim enough to come with us anyway. Rebecca was added to our little riding group
while we were walking home, and though she really isn’t into riding for fun
anymore, she wanted to take her new wheels out for a spin too. Tim and Nora had needed to go and get their
bikes first; and we met up at my house to have a snack break with Ethan and
Ehlana before hitting the road.
Having six of us on the ride avoided most of the awkward
Rowen and I have been feeling each time that Nora’s gone riding with us. Part of that was because we had fun getting
to spend the time with Rebecca, but she also kept Nora company when Michael and
Tim wanted to test the limits of their new bikes; and Rowen and I went racing
off with them, worked on tricks, or hopped out bikes over just about anything
we found along the way that we could use for jumps.
Rowen and I both had plans for the evening, and I needed to
be home in time to help Mom with making the food part of our dinner and a movie
night. That worked out okay because by
the time I needed to leave, we were all getting cold – even if the guys
wouldn’t admit it. Rowen and Patrick
were doing something with their family for the evening, so Rowen went over to
the computer store when I went home. Mom
was already starting the work in the kitchen by then, and I joined in right
away. Aunt Leanne came over straight
from work, and Uncle Nick was added to the work crew about twenty minutes
later.
We weren’t officially having a party, but Aunt Deborah is
now officially on maternity leave. She
hadn’t totally agreed with the decision on that, but her doctor, husband, and
family had all pitched in to convince her that she would do what she was told
when Uncle Adam decided she needed to stop and take care of herself and the
baby. From what I heard at dinner
tonight, I don’t actually think Aunt Deborah really minds being told to stop
working. She and the baby are both just
fine, but when you’re having naps on hospital beds at lunchtime, and sleeping a
couple of hours at a time off and on all night; it’s probably past-time for you
to stop working fifty or sixty hours a week.
This probably isn’t news for any future readers of my
journals, but Uncle Adam won’t be on his own while Aunt Deborah is off
work. Grandma Johnson is going to work
part-time, and she’s got a group of mostly stay-at-home Moms and Grandmothers
who are going to take a shift or two a week and help out with the office work
side of Aunt Deborah’s job. They’ve
already re-organized some regular appointments so that Uncle Adam will have a
nurse there when needed. Aunt Deborah
hasn’t decided how she feels about it yet, but the maternity leave coverage
plan is already tentatively set up to go from now until September.
Though we weren’t having an official party, Mom had invited
some extra guests tonight; though we only had our usual group stay for the
movie. Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Adam’s
grandparents and mother, and Dr. Tammy and her husband, Bob, all already had
other after-dinner plans; but were happy to join us for the meal. We had dinner in the dining room, and even
though Ethan, Ehlana, and I didn't have any other kids to hang out with
tonight; we still had fun hanging out with some of our favorite grown-ups; and
we talked about everything from what was going on at the clinic to babies and
weddings.
The biggest news at the clinic isn’t actually Aunt Deborah’s
maternity leave – we’re going to have a new dentist in town soon. Dr. Tammy’s daughter, Wendy, will be joining
her mother’s practice after she completes her doctorate in a few weeks; and
then gets a well-deserved vacation and break.
Dr. Wendy will likely officially start at the clinic near the end of
June or early July. I wonder if the kids
and teens will want to go with the young, pretty new dentist or stick with Dr.
Tammy and her experience. It won’t
matter to Ethan, Ehlana, and me if we get Dr. Wendy – there are some advantages
to being able to heal ourselves; and getting our teeth looked at and cleaned a
couple of times a year isn’t a big deal.
The baby chat was mostly about the plans Aunt Deborah and
Uncle Nick had for handling the new addition to their family; and the wedding
talk was about Mom and Aunt Leanne would be doing next weekend with Aunt Grace
while we’re in Granite
Park. I got teased a bit about being the perfect
age to take advantage of all of the babysitting that was going to be available
in my family for the next five or ten years, and a bit about taking a date to
Aunt Grace’s wedding; but Aunt Leanne was nice enough to hold off on any major
Michael-related teasing until most of our guests had moved on, and we were
cleaning up in the kitchen.
She’s very happy that Michael isn’t dating now; is thrilled
that we’re spending time together; and disappointed that I’m stubbornly
refusing to cross over and getting him ‘off the market’ before one of the other
girls catch him instead. She also
thought that I should have invited Michael to our dinner and a movie night;
since Fridays are conveniently one of his nights off. Let’s not tell her that I’d actually thought
about inviting both Rebecca and Michael tonight, but didn’t specifically
because I knew that would be too good of a matchmaking opportunity for Aunt
Leanne to resist.
With the bigger than usual clean-up, we didn’t get started
on the movie until nearly an hour later than usual; and we weren’t very far
into it when we had to take another break to welcome Dad home and help him unload
the truck. He’d had a long day; the
traffic had been a pain for getting out of the city; and he ended up napping
through the last half of the movie. Aunt
Deborah had napped for a while too, so the party wrapped up shortly after the
show ended. Dad was sent up to bed; Mom,
Ethan, Ehlana, and I saw our guests out after cleaning up; and then I helped
Mom get the twins ready for bed and tucked in before coming up to my room.
I was thinking about doing some extra studying tonight, but
we’ve got another yard work day planned, and Brock’s birthday party and a
sleepover with Rowen tomorrow night; I’ve decided to just do the basic nightly
computing and get some sleep. There’s
more rain in the forecast this weekend, but hopefully it won’t put too much of
a damper on either the work or fun. That
is pretty much it for today, though, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
