Dinner and a movie nights are different now that I have a
boyfriend; and more fun than ever. I’ve
visited Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace at their house quite a few times, but this
was our first time spending the evening and having a meal there with them.
I’m starting my report with that part of the day because it
was the most fun. Michael, Tim, and
Rowen were all invited; and even getting teased about that by Aunt Leanne and
Aunt Grace just made for bonus entertainment.
They made sure to warn Tim about the dangers of cuddling with me at
dinner and a movie nights, but he doesn’t need to worry about that anymore.
When you read this some day in the future, Aunt Leanne;
thanks for holding back on Rowen and Tim.
I know that you were thinking about the fact that your warning was
already way too late for Rowen; even if the results of those past movie night
cuddles are just catching up with her now.
While I’m thinking about that, there hasn’t been any news to
report for Rowen and Tim since Tuesday night, and though they sat close
together during the movie; there wasn’t any hand-holding, cuddling, or anything
else going on between them – except for some empathic sparks flashing between
them that were impossible for Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, or I to miss. I’ve written before about Tim’s liberal views
on public displays of affection, so he has other reasons for holding back on
his obvious attraction to Rowen; and I’m sure that her extreme shyness around
him during situations like this is probably one of the factors. I’ll also guess that changing his years-long
perception of Rowen is going to take a while too; since what he’s feeling isn’t
matching up with image he’s always had of Rowen.
Since I’ve gotten off track, I may as well jump back and
cover the morning and afternoon action before continuing on with the dinner and
a movie news. Michael came over for Tai
Chi, but went home for breakfast and to do some chores around the house before
going on to the Inn to help with the lunch
rush. I spent the morning working in the
office on the family business. Mom took
Ethan and Ehlana to KidZone for the morning, and then she and Alicia did the
grocery shopping and errands while the twins and I were busy.
Rowen came over in time for lunch after spending the morning
at the computer store, and we did another picnic on the dock with Ethan and
Ehlana while Mom and Alicia sat at the patio table on the back porch and took a
well-deserved break after their hours of shopping and work. That’s the main reason why we also took Ethan
and Ehlana for a bike ride after helping with the clean-up. We did the usual construction tour that they
both liked to do with us; and then we went to the park playground for a
half-hour or so – until Tim, Kyle, and the other guys arrived at the park for
yet another football practice.
I haven’t mentioned this yet, but this extra football
training must be tough on Kyle. He works
with his Dad and Uncle; and is still putting in full shifts working on farm
equipment and going out on service calls to make on-site repairs before and
after the practices. His time at the
park is really just a late, extended lunch break. He’ll probably still work before and after
football once they officially start training a week from Monday; and those
work-outs are all-day events.
Rowen, Ehlana, and I were not surprised that Ethan wanted to
go and watch the guys, so we did that for a while; and he had fun running
around trying to do the speed drills with all of the older boys. Michael joined in to do that too when he
joined us after he was finished at the Inn for the day; and he scooped Ethan up
and carried him back to the start line on the way back from each sprint turning
point. That slowed him down, but he
still didn’t finish last; and Kyle thought that it was such a good idea that he
carried Ethan for the last set of ‘suicide’ sprints. Ethan thought that was a blast – and they
still won too!
We stayed long enough to let Ethan watch the start of the
scrimmage game, and then Rowen and I took the twins home; dropped off the
trailer; and biked the trails for a while until Michael and Tim were finished
playing football for the day. They came
back to my house with us, and we had time to take Ethan and Ehlana for a swim
before needing to help Mom with carrying our dinner contributions over to Uncle
Mark and Aunt Grace’s house and then helping out with the work there for a
while.
Our jobs included hauling tables and chairs over from Uncle
Adam and Aunt Leanne’s storage barn and setting them up in the back yard; some
food prep help that included husking corn and getting potatoes cleaned and
peeled; setting up the buffet table; and keeping an eye on Ethan and Ehlana
while they played in the back yard.
Michael and Tim hadn’t been the only extra guests tonight in
addition to the usual dinner and a movie group.
Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace had invited other neighbors and friends to at
least join us for dinner; though the Emersons and Drapers were busy at their
stores; and while Philip and Naomi came over, Liz was busy at the Salon
tonight.
I haven’t done a pregnancy update for Liz lately, so let’s
take a brief side-trip and do that. She
has about a month left to go now, and while she has cut back on her hours at
the salon a bit; she’s still working the busiest times of each day to help
Vicky keep up – and Friday and Saturday are always busy during the summer. It’ll be time to cut back even more after the
holiday weekend; and then she’ll be off with the baby until going back to work
part-time for the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. On the baby side of the pregnancy, Liz is
doing the full pre-natal training that Mom’s been putting together; and it
sounds like that’s going pretty well for her – though not quite the same as it
is for Aunt Leanne. There are several factors
affecting those results; with the most important being the Magi strength of
both the mothers and the babies.
Those reports are available in the pre-natal training
archives if you’re interested in reading more about that. For tonight, I’ll just add that Liz and her
baby are both healthy and doing just fine.
Philip is in full protective-husband and father mode; and Naomi is excited
about having a new baby. They have the
baby’s bedroom set up, stocked, and ready to go too; and are now just waiting for
the big day.
Speaking of baby rooms, since that topic came up during
dinner too; that’s a job coming up on the to-do list for Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne. They’re going to start working
on that in September, and it should be a lot of fun getting to help out with
that. They’re going to use one of the
cribs and change tables we had for the twins; but I’m sure there will be
painting, decorating, and shopping involved.
Getting back to current events, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I
had our end of the work done by the time the Dads and Grandfathers started
working the grills; so we took Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi for a swim. That cooled us off, and then the three
younger kids ran us around the back yard with their games until we were dry and
dinner was ready. Violet and Dillon got
back from Woodvale just as we were rounded up; so Aunt Grace and her cooking
assistants must have been staying in touch with them so we could sit down and
eat as soon as they were back.
I didn’t have a chance to talk with Violet or Dillon much
during dinner; they went to check in with his parents and drop off his luggage
during the clean-up; and Michael and I were on the other side of the room from
them during the movie, so the only chance I had to chat with Violet was when
she stopped by to say goodnight to me about an hour ago on her way to bed. That little visit didn’t even give us time to
cover her full Woodvale report, but she was really tired; and I didn’t want to
keep her up when she has so much to get done over the next two days.
This update feels a bit disjointed tonight, and that’s
probably because my mind has been wandering around while I’ve been sitting in
the window alcove and working on my computer since coming up to my room
tonight. We were at a ‘kids’ table for
dinner, and were out of the loop for a lot of the conversations going on at the
other tables; but in addition to talking babies, new homes, jobs, and the rest
of the usual grown-up chat topics; there were some things that I heard about
but didn’t have time to think about until now.
First up, chronologically, is the back-to-school shopping
trip – on Monday! Honestly, I hadn’t
really thought about it at all this week even though I knew that Mom and Aunt
Leanne had been keeping up with the planning for that as they always do
now. The news I hadn’t known about was
that Aunt Leanne had decided not to go on this trip; and that there are going
to be more boys going along this time.
Aunt Leanne is staying home because Dad will be in the city; and Claire
is going on the trip. I’m sure that a
long day of Mall walking had something to do with the decision too, but she’ll
be able to get a bit of a shopping fix at the sales going on around town
instead; and we’ll bring a fast food fix home for her. The addition of more boys to the group is
apparently because some fathers suck at shopping for their boys; and those
mothers don’t want to make two trips to Crystal Springs.
I don’t think that Miranda was one of those Moms, and Tracey
Landry hasn’t gone on the back-to-school trip before, but Michael and Tim are
two of the guys on Mom’s list. My
thoughts on that news right now are mostly about whether that will make the
shopping more fun – or really, really weird.
Having my boyfriend along while I’m trying on clothes – or shopping for
new underwear – could be very uncomfortable for both of us. Yes, I know that won’t happen, but my
imagination doesn’t seem to care about the facts while coming up with those
hypothetical scenarios.
If only not thinking about soft, fluffy bunnies still worked
for me there might be a chance that those thoughts won’t migrate into my dreams
whenever I do manage to drift off.
Moving along, the next piece of dinnertime news was from
Violet, when she confirmed that her family won’t be coming here for the holiday
weekend – mostly because she won’t be here; and that’ll give them a chance to
spend the holiday with Uncle Richard’s and Aunt Melissa’s sides of the family
for the first time in years. Since the
Rice family won’t be here for the holiday; we’re not going to have any weekend
guests. Uncle Blaine and his family were
already booked to stay at Inn Everett, and Grandma and Grandpa are having
Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy with them.
I’m sure we’ll still have some kid sleepovers; but that won’t be the
same as a house full of family.
Finally, Aunt Leanne told us that Pastors Lewis and Martha
are expecting their son and his family to get to town on Monday – after sharing
one final Sunday service with their ‘home’ church. The Pastors picked up the keys to the house
that Pastor John, his wife, Stacey, will be renting from Aunt Leanne already;
mostly so they could take delivery on some new furniture from ValleyView today,
tomorrow, and Monday. Our new Pastor and
his family don’t travel like Mom and I did when we were on the run, but they
have been doing missions work for years; and didn’t have much in the way of
their own furniture before now. I’m sure
this will be as exciting for them as it was for Mom and me when we moved here.
The Grandparents had kid-control duty during the clean-up,
and everyone else except for pregnant women or Moms with babies – and Violet
and Dillon – pitched in for the clean-up.
It took a while to get that done, and then there was a little time to
play in the back yard while some of the dinner guests headed out and the drinks
and snacks were readied for the movie part of our evening. That next couple of hours, including the
post-movie clean-up, was fun; though the movie choice was a bit boring for most
of the guys. Since we’re likely to have
toddlers in the group for quite a few years to come, we’ll all need to get used
to appropriately-rated movies; and save the action flicks and extreme video
gaming for after the younger kids go to bed.
That isn’t what we did tonight, but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and
I did go for a walk to the falls and back after helping Mom and Dad get the
twins home. We were a bit surprised when
there weren’t any other teens or tweens hanging out at the falls, but it was
nice to have the place to ourselves and enjoy some quiet time without little
kids or adults around. Michael is
working the breakfast and lunch shifts on Saturday because we all have Roger’s
birthday party to go to tomorrow, so he couldn’t stay out late; and we were all
in our own homes by eleven o’clock – though Rowen and Tim split up with us at
Quarry Road so that Michael and I were on our own for a goodnight kiss or three
on his front porch.
Mom and Dad had already gone to bed by then, and Violet was
still at Dillon’s house; so I came straight up to my room and got ready for
bed. That’s where Mandy and I have been
since then; working on my computer. I
probably should have just gone to sleep, since I do have a yard work morning,
our ball game, and that birthday party tomorrow; but I wanted to do my usual
nightly computer checks; and got interested in a family business project
proposal that was waiting for me to look over.
The visit with Violet was nice, and I could have stopped working then;
but I wasn’t quite ready to crash yet then, so I finished the job before moving
on to this update.
I am ready to spend some time in dreamland now; though
that’ll be more like a long nap at this point.
It’s a good thing that self-energizing is an option – I may need that by
morning! There isn’t anything else to
report tonight, though, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
