Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 30, 2013



Happy 26th Birthday, Uncle Nick!

Three birthdays and parties in three days – I’m getting tired out!

Actually, I’m exhausted; have decided to skip most of my usual nightly studies and computing; and plan on being asleep by eleven o’clock tonight.  September can end and October can start without me this year.

That plan is going to require a condensed version of the report for today; so here we go.

Tai Chi; breakfast, the rest of the morning routine, and school was pretty much standard for a Monday.  Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me for our after-school studying.  We watched Ethan and Ehlana while we did that so Mom could go over to the Ayres’ house and help Uncle Nick’s mother with the birthday dinner plans.  The six of us went over to the park after our homework was done and Michael, Tim, and Ethan played some football until Michael and I needed to get the twins cleaned up and join Mom and Dad at the party.

That was fun, but a standard birthday party for grown-ups; and Michael and I were assigned kid control and took care of all of the toddlers and babies.  No wonder I’m exhausted after doing that on about three hours of sleep!

It’s a school and work night, so the party didn’t go late, and then I helped Mom with the bath and bedtime routine for my brother and sister after walking Michael home and spending a few quality minutes on our goodnight hugs and kisses.  Mom did a Magi lesson with me after that, but kept it short when I obviously wasn’t quite up to snuff to do anything too advanced tonight.

That’s about it.  I came up to my room after saying goodnight to Mom and Dad; got ready for bed; and have dealt with a couple of family business jobs that couldn’t be left until tomorrow night.  Next up: seven and a half hours or so of down time.  That should bring me back up to full power again, but until I’m there; I’m out of here.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Cassie's Journal - September 29, 2013



Happy 13th Birthday, Michael!

He isn’t trying to start a trend or anything, but we were both really happy to spend most of the day together with our best friends instead of having a big party that his parents didn’t have time to throw on a Sunday anyway.

Michael and I skipped Tai Chi this morning, but Rowen and I were still busy from the time we woke up and took turns having showers until we walked over to his house with about fifteen minutes to spare before we were supposed to sit down for breakfast.  The birthday hugs and kisses this morning weren’t as fiery as they were at midnight; but we had company with us this time.  We didn’t really have all that long to actually eat breakfast; get Michael to open his gifts; and have a short conference call with Jake and Stephanie before we needed to clean up and go to church.

Jacob wasn’t experimenting today, but the food was as awesome as always, and Michael does have really great favorites; though Jacob cooked up a few extra options too.  The chat with Jake and Stephanie was the most entertaining part of the morning, and while I’m sure that they’d have liked to be having breakfast with us instead of whatever their choices were going to be today in their respective dining halls; but it sounded like they expected to have more fun there for the rest of the day than they’d have had working at the Inn today – even with the studying they were going to be doing all afternoon with some of their college friends.

Michael’s birthday fun continued after his breakfast party; starting with getting a gift from Ethan and Ehlana when they stopped in with Mom and Dad so they could walk with us to church.  I don’t know if Aunt Leanne or Uncle Adam mad the decision, but they drove to church today; and I don’t think that Aunt Leanne will be doing any more long walks at least until after the baby is born.  They’d already gone into the sanctuary by the time we got there, so I stopped by to share some hugs and kisses with them – and with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Grace before going to sit with Michael and his family.

Since Michael wasn’t having a big party today, he was given a couple of gifts during Sunday school; and our friends helped to keep the birthday fun going for him while we were at church.  We’re in a bit of a lull for extra activities right now; and that won’t pick up again until we start getting ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  While that means that we don’t have anything extra to do to help with kid and teen-led special services, our lessons are interesting; and becoming more challenging now that we’re getting old enough to deal with more serious theological and social issues.

Sometimes I miss the stickers we got for memorizing bible verses and making the crafts every week; but I wouldn’t trade going back to those days if that meant giving up things that I do like about being older now – like having a boyfriend! ;^)

After church, Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me and we had lunch with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana before Michael and I took off; went over to his place; and spent the afternoon playing together in a clothing-optional sort of way until we needed to be at the Inn for dinner.

Oh wait – that was just something I dreamed about last night!  We did have lunch at my house and go to dinner at the Inn, though.  When you eventually read this, Aunt Leanne, let me know whether your first thought was ‘that’s my girl’ or not.

I’m sure that Michael and I would have both enjoyed that dream if it had been our reality today; but we had fun playing with our friends instead.  We went biking on the trails; played a little football; picked up afternoon snacks at the Emporium and ate them while sitting by the falls; and the boys played some video games in the lounge while Rowen and I got ready to go out to dinner.  After seeing us once we were dressed up again, they suddenly felt the urge to go ahead of us and stop in at Michael’s house so they could change back into the clothes they’d worn to church.  Rowen and I helped Mom with Ethan and Ehlana until we were all ready to leave; and then we picked them up on the way to the Inn.

Miranda and Jacob were too busy to stop and have dinner with Michael, but pretty much the entire Bassett clan was there to celebrate Michael’s birthday.  Grandma and Grandpa Bassett were acting as semi-official hosts for the dinner, and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I sat at the table with them – and with Erica and Caleb.  Erica and I had Jessica with us a lot too; though she was at the table next to ours with her parents, brother, Aunt, and Uncle when they could get her to sit down and eat.  Sophia had dinner with Ethan, Ehlana, and my parents at the next table over, and while Naomi and Aiden are their best friends; Sophia is next-closest to them among all of the kids their age.

Since Caleb is on the football team and Erica is one of the cheerleaders I wasn’t surprised that football was at the top of the conversation list during dinner.  While Kyle Landry and our defense gets most of the glory on our team, Caleb is our primary running back; and does what he can while working with an admittedly weaker offensive line.  He helps out with special teams defense and kick returns too; but he’s also smart enough not to get himself killed trying for extra yards.  Since he has to practice against Kyle four days a week, that’s definitely a smart way for him to play the game!

Tim had already given Michael, Rowen, and I the game recap from Friday, but we got to hear most of it again.  Fortunately for Rowen and me, Erica had some non-football stories to chat about too, with my favorite being about Jenny and Garth Green.  Okay, that was partly related to football, but only because Garth apparently needs to learn not to be distracted by his new cheerleader girlfriend while on the field; and Jenny needs to learn not to distract the boys – unless she’s doing that to the players on the other team.  I’m not sure if giving that idea to Jenny is a good idea.  I can picture her taking that challenge to heart in a big way; and our team doesn’t exactly need that kind of help to win games.

We really had fun during dinner, and I really like Michael’s grandparents a lot.  They’re a handful of years younger than my grandparents, and have a slightly different relationship with their grandchildren than Ethan, Ehlana, and I have with ours; but they love their family a lot, and are very proud of them.  Erica and Caleb sat with us because Erica is closest in age to Michael, and while I’m writing about their grandparents; I want to mention a couple of things that I sensed tonight while with them.

I know the Magi Council is very concerned about relationships between Magi and non-Magi – particularly with kids and teens – but I’m not sure that their worthy goals are always pursued or personally desired.  Hopefully this won’t offend anyone in the future, but I got a very strong impression that Michael’s grandparents were particularly happy about Erica and Caleb being together – and they were both excited and pleased that Michael and I are dating.

Maybe I should check in with Ethan and Ehlana to find out exactly how much they told the council while getting them to agree to let Michael and I know about each other.  I was so happy about the news at the time that I didn’t really question the how they made it happen all that closely.

Anyway, my point here is that even council members have a natural desire to see their Magi children and grandchildren matched up with other Magi.  The Bassett family is actually a nice little microcosm of our town.  Edward and Rosemary had two Magi and one latent child.  Their kids ended up with one Magi relationship, one pairing of non-Magi, and one mixed couple.  They have eight grandchildren, of which five are Magi and three are latents.  Of the four grandchildren who are currently in relationships, we’ve already established that two of them have Magi partners while the other two are in mixed, Magi-Latent relationships.

None of that will be news to future readers of my journal, but I point it out to show that even in a family that is successfully diverse; there is still a bias toward wanting Magi couples.  That’s perfectly natural, and may often be subconscious, but when you look at that in context to a family like the Bassetts; that factor alone doesn’t affect the outcome of those relationships – particularly when it comes to the children.  In this case, two out of five of the Magi grandchildren are in the family with two non-Magi parents.  That certainly supports the theory that perfect matches have more to do with that than whether one or both parents are Magi too.

I’ll write more about that and some other things that I’ve been working on related to that in our Magi Project archive later this week; so if you’re interested in more of that, just cross-reference the date and check out the rest of my work on this there.

Getting back to Michael’s birthday adventures, while Jacob and Miranda couldn’t stop to have dinner with him, Rebecca did take a quick break to grab some food and sit with us shortly before their parents brought out a large birthday cake and had everyone in the dining room sing the birthday song to him.  There were a few more gifts for Michael to open then too from his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; and he did that while the cake was being passed around until every slice was gone.  There are rarely leftovers from birthday cakes at the Inn on a buffet night!

You may be wondering about what Michael wished for when he blew out the candles.  He didn’t tell me, but I was able to sense it; and have every intention of making that wish come true for him.

No, I’m not going to tell you what he’s wishing for most this year; but I can tell you that his wish from last year worked out for him, so he’s a big believer in them now!

When we were ready to leave the Inn after finishing dessert, Michael and I did a quick visit to the kitchen for some goodbye hugs, kisses, and thanks; and then we went back to my house with Tim and Rowen.  Ethan and Ehlana joined us for some video game action until it was time for them to go to bed, and then we joined them for the bedtime snack and story with Mom and Dad before Tim and Rowen made up a pair of non-excuses to head out and leave Michael and me with about an hour of alone time before he needed to get home.  School night curfews aren’t always fun, but we made the best of the time we had; and didn’t even bother to turn the television on and pretend to watch something.

No, we didn’t make Michael’s wish come true tonight; but I am fairly sure that he went home thinking that this has been his best birthday ever so far.

Mom and Dad were working in the office when Michael left, so I had a little visit with them before coming up to my room again and getting ready for bed.  Mandy was ready to sleep by then, but I’ve had a lot of work to get done tonight – more than usual thanks to some extra business-related emails.  I had the usual weekly updates from my college cousins and friends too, but it’s nearly three-thirty in the morning now; and none of my work, studies, or personal correspondence included anything particularly worth reporting in my journal – though that could just be my current perspective.  If I reconsider that assessment sometime tomorrow, I’ll add that to my next update.

For now, I just want to crash for the few hours I have left until it’ll be time for morning Tai Chi, so...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 28, 2013



Happy 1st Birthday, Valerie!

Before I get started on the news of the day, Michael and Tim reminded me tonight that our team had a football game last night; and I didn’t write about it last night.

They won – yeah!

Did that sound excited enough to you?  Okay, for those of you who desperately need more details; they won what Tim admitted was a fairly ugly game against Three Rivers.  There isn’t any point in going into the details about why our opponent last night was being particularly offensive in a non-football or sportsmanlike way – the sixty-eight to seventeen score speaks to that fairly effectively.  So did Kyle’s eight defensive take-aways; six quarterback sacks; and his four touchdowns that were just over half of the fifty-two points our team scored on his turnovers.  Our offense only added one other touchdown and three field goals that weren’t helped by defensive turnovers; but then they didn’t exactly need the extra points anyway.  Tim was fired up about the game, and how well his cousin played; but I’m glad that I missed it.

Now that my football team duty is taken care of; let’s move on to the good stuff from today.

We woke up to light rain falling, so Tai Chi was indoors today; but I was just glad to get to spend a bit of time with Michael before we left for Crystal Springs.  The Malloy’s weren’t expecting us until lunchtime, but Mom had decided to get the shopping she wanted to do finished before the party instead of trying to do it on the way home after it was over.  That worked for me because I wanted to spend time with Michael, Tim, and Rowen tonight after Michael was done at the Inn; and Rowen’s staying for a sleepover so that we can both go over to Michael’s house in the morning for his birthday breakfast.

That meant we were busy getting ready for the day, having breakfast, and getting the minivan loaded for the trip from the time Michael went home until we were on the road heading east at eight-thirty; but then I was able to relax and watch a movie with Ethan and Ehlana while we drove to the city.  I blasted through my homework then too; but that didn’t take long with a little Magi power assistance.  We stopped at Wal-Mart first to pick up some bulk supplies before making a stop at the Mall; and though I’d already picked up Michael’s birthday presents, I found a couple of little things to give him along with the main gifts.

This trip gave me a chance to get some other gifts for upcoming birthdays and other events too, but since I hadn’t actually expected to be in the city again until next month – or maybe even not until November – I was really just getting ahead of schedule on that – I was already covered for just about everything through mid-October anyway.  We didn’t do a lot of clothes shopping, but even Dad picked up a couple of things before it was time to load up again and drive over to the Malloy’s house.

I love our home, and old houses in general; but newer homes often have much more interesting designs; and Terry and Angela’s place is very modern and interesting.  It was still raining off and on by the time we got there, so I didn’t spend much time outdoors; but even with a big guest list for the party; it wasn’t even remotely crowded for us except when we all sat down to eat and were all in one room at the same time.  Ethan, Ehlana, and I spent most of the afternoon playing with Valerie, some of her cousins, and a few other little kids who were there with some of Terry’s and Angela’s friends.

Valerie doesn’t have a bedroom suite; but she does have a large, separate play room that had been an extra guest bedroom before she was born – and already was well-stocked with toys, games, and books.  She also has a wall-mounted television that’s high enough to be reasonably kid-proof, and while I’m sure she loves watching movies on it already; I’ll take a wild guess that the gaming system attached to it is more for her Daddy’s benefit than hers right now.  A couple of the older boys played games on that for a while, but the younger kids mostly played with the toys and games.

The party wasn’t really any different from other first birthday celebrations except that Angela and Terry hang out with a different circle of friends than Mom and Dad do at home.  Dad loved that, since half of those friends were lawyers and judges; so he fit right in – and knew most of them from his work in Crystal Springs.  Mom didn’t find all the legal talk particularly interesting, but she did have fun with Terry and his engineering buddies.

If that surprises you, it shouldn’t.  The really good engineers are just math geeks on steroids; and Mom was able to run circles around them when it comes to throwing numbers around.

While I’m thinking about the guys at the party, they spent a lot of their afternoon watching college football.  Though I was in the play room with the younger kids most of the time, Dad couldn’t resist showing off my football knowledge skills to Terry and the other guys once while I was taking a break from the toddler action.  That was entertaining, and Dad still likes getting to brag about his straight-A+ student daughter – even though he can’t talk about just how extraordinary all of his kids are.

I can’t really say that much of the adult conversations were all that interesting to me since I’m not all that interested in either law or engineering.  The play time with Valerie was fun, though, and she was particularly entertaining during dinner; while having her birthday cake; and when she opened her gifts and found the boxes, ribbons, and bows more fun than most of the gifts.  I was at the other end of the table during most of that action, and that was okay with me; since anyone too close to Valerie ended up wearing bits of chocolate cake when she unintentionally started a minor food fight with one of her little cousins that was only kept under control thanks to quick action by attentive parents.

Ethan and Ehlana had to play ‘normal’ toddler all afternoon, and while they still have fun playing with young kids; they were ready for some more stimulating conversation by the time we headed home again.  We were on the road by six o’clock; and back in Witch Falls by shortly before eight.  I used Mom’s phone to check in with Rowen, and she came over right away.  We unloaded the van first and I had time to get my own purchases put away before Michael and Tim joined us.

Michael didn’t get out of work at the Inn early, but it wasn’t all that busy either; so they didn’t need him to stay right through until they closed tonight.  Tim was staying at Michael’s tonight and they didn’t need to be home again until midnight; so we didn’t need to rush the start of our movie.  We had a visit with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; helped with getting my brother and sister tucked in for the night; and then came up to the lounge to watch another Halloween flick.

Rowen is quite happy to have the scary movie excuse to encourage Tim to cuddle with her, so we may have to come up with a new plan for that after Halloween; but she hopes they’ll officially be a couple before then anyway and won’t have that problem.  Michael and I enjoyed the cuddle time too; though it didn’t seem nearly long enough before he and Tim needed to head home.  I’m pretty sure that Rowen and Tim had more alone time action than Michael and I did; but it was my fault that the boys were a few minutes late getting home.  I doubt that Miranda will mind; since I only wanted to make sure that the official start to Michael’s first birthday with me as his girlfriend was memorable – and we definitely set off a few midnight fireworks on the back porch while Rowen and Tim waited for us on the front porch steps.

Yeah, I know Tim didn’t kiss you goodnight out there, Rowen; but you guys more than made up for that while not cleaning up the lounge when Michael and I were washing our glasses and snack bowls.

Mom and Dad had already been in bed by then, so Rowen and I came straight up to my room and got ready for bed.  I’d done as much of my nightly computing as I could on the trip home from Valerie’s party, so all I’ve done since climbing into bed with Rowen and Mandy was my email checks; including sending email for family business work I’d completed offline.  Rowen and I need to be up early to get appropriately beautiful and dressed up for Michael’s birthday breakfast and church, and we’ve already kept our girl chat going past one o’clock; so I’m going to wrap this up, put my computer away, and hit the lights so we can get what rest we can.  I want to be ready to help Michael have a best-ever-so-far birthday!

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 27, 2013



A Day Two schedule Friday and dinner and a movie night are a pretty good combination for a good start to the weekend!

Tai Chi was fun, and I got to keep Michael with us for breakfast before he hurried home to get ready for school.  We hadn’t practiced our music last night, but that didn’t really hurt us at all for music class; and all of that helped to keep me happy all day as we worked through the rest of our classes.  That included writing tests in English this morning and Geography during last class; but I don’t exactly need to get stressed about any of my tests.

The big change from our normal Friday happened after school.  Since we’re going to be away tomorrow, I needed to mow the lawn today.  Tim was going with his Uncle Lee to our team’s football game in Three Rivers, but Michael and Rowen both decided to help me with the work; so I let Rowen use the riding mower while I did the trimming with the push mower and Michael brought their riding mower over and used it.  Doing the cuts around the trees, gardens, and along the riverbank doesn’t really take all that long; so I gave the gardens a quick once-over too while Michael and Rowen finished cutting the grass.  We all hopped into the river after that to cool off – which didn’t take long now that the river is really cooling down a lot each night.  We certainly didn’t want to stay in the water for long; and Ethan and Ehlana weren’t interested in going in with us today.  Michael had changed into his swimsuit after taking his lawnmower home, and needed to go back again to get cleaned up and changed for the dinner and a movie part of our night.  That gave Rowen and I time to do our hair; and she’d just shopped in my room for both the swimsuit and clothes to wear for the rest of the evening.

Mom had cooking help from Grandma and Grandpa while I’d been busy, and we only had them – and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne – with us for dinner this week.  It’s Uncle Nick’s birthday on Monday, so he and Aunt Deborah took Leah on a road trip to visit her family; though they’ll be back on Sunday.  From what I heard tonight, there’s probably a kid-free five-star hotel sleepover in Uncle Nick’s future too; but that’s apparently a surprise that he won’t find out about until tomorrow sometime.

Grandpa took care of most of the grilling tonight, and he cooked up chicken and shish-kabobs while Mom and Grandma whipped up a broccoli casserole and scalloped potatoes.  Add in the bakery desserts that Mom had picked up today while Ethan and Ehlana had been at KidZone; and we were all very happy campers by the time we waddled into the living room to watch Spooky Buddies after finishing the kitchen clean-up.

Not having the whole gang with us tonight worked out great for the movie; since we didn’t need to bring in extra chairs and have anyone feeling uncomfortable by the end of the show – or split up and do a different movie in the lounge like we have been doing lately.  I like the kid-time too; but don’t want to completely miss out on movie nights with my favorite grown-ups either.

Speaking of uncomfortable, though, I think Rowen was feeling a bit out of place when we first sat down to watch the movie; and then Ethan helped out with that by happily hopping into her lap and getting Aunt Leanne teasing him about getting in trouble with Tim for trying to move in on Rowen while he was out of town.  It’s a bit weird that he and Ehlana need to play normal toddlers when Michael and Rowen are both with us even though they each know the truth about my brother and sister, but in this case; it was funny to listen to Ethan essentially explain to everyone that he and Rowen are both single, he loves her, and isn’t worried about Tim.

Having a cuddle buddy for that movie worked out fine for Rowen, but she quickly opted to go home after that instead of staying to watch a second movie in the lounge with Michael and me – even after Ethan offered to stay up late with her.  Mom vetoed that offer anyway, and Michael and I were okay with having some alone time before he had to go home for the night.  We did stay downstairs long enough to help with the clean-up; see the rest of our guests on their way home; and then get Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night on our way up to the lounge before settling in to watch another Halloween movie and spend some quality time making out for an hour and a half or so.

I don’t want to turn my journal into a literary voyeur’s paradise, but I certainly hope that making out with my boyfriend will be a very important part of my life for the foreseeable future; and I’m sure that Michael and I are both spending a fair bit of our time thinking about it in between those opportunities.  Without getting too graphic, it wasn’t quite as hot tonight as it was last weekend, though partial nudity was involved; we had fun; and were very happy campers by the time Michael needed to go home.

After seeing Michael out and sharing a few more kisses on the front porch, I had a little visit with Mom and Dad in the office before we all came upstairs to our rooms.  We need to be up early to hit the road for Crystal Springs, so I put a one o’clock time limit on my work tonight.  We’re almost there now, and I don’t have anything exciting to report from my studies or work; so it’s time to shut down and get some sleep so I’ll be ready for a busy travel and play day.  Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 26, 2013



It was boys against the girls for game night at the Inn; and that was Miranda’s excuse for having Mom as her partner again this week while Dad teamed up with Jacob for the night.  I don’t know if she’ll come up with something else for next week, but that plan did earn Miranda a repeat senior championship; and everyone had fun with the forced partner switch-ups.

Rowen and I didn’t win the junior championship, but neither did Michael and Tim; and we did end up two places ahead of the boys.  It would have been great to report that Jacob and Dad had won the senior championship just to mess up Miranda’s grand scheme, but they were having more fun playing with Ethan and Ehlana than with the games; and pretty much ended up near the bottom of the standings where Jacob’s teams usually placed each week regardless of who he was partnering with.  He’d win for most fun team a lot of weeks, though!

My day up until we went to the Inn after school was fairly uneventful.  It was a standard school day morning at home and nothing particularly exciting happened while we were at school.  Rowen and Tim did their homework with Michael and me at the Inn before moving on when we needed to help out in the kitchen; and Michael, Rebecca, and I had a lot of fun together while mostly helping out with the prep line and some dishwashing.  The three of us had our dinner break together too; and Rebecca and I helped out with setting up the games while the dining room was cleaned up and the last few dinner guests finished their desserts and after-dinner drinks.

While I’m thinking about working at the Inn, I haven’t yet mentioned in my journal that Jenny isn’t spending much time at the Inn right now – just as she wasn’t working with Rebecca as often while dating Joel during the summer.  Being a cheerleader is part of that, and so is wanting to spend time with her new boyfriend; but she still stops in to chat with Rebecca now and then too.  Hopefully the extra time I’m spending there now will help Rebecca a little while she’s missing that extra time with her best friend.

Moving along, after game night, Michael walked home with me – and with nearly all of the gamers heading home in the same direction as us.  When the goodnight kisses teasing started this time, I took Michael’s hand and led him into his house so we could take care of that without an audience.  Aunt Leanne and Aunt Grace were waiting to tease me some more at my house, but those private goodnight kisses were worth it.

Once they’d had their fun with me, my aunts let their husbands take them home; and I started helping Mom with Ethan and Ehlana’s baths while Dad got to work in the office.  We multi-tasked that with a Magi lesson that worked on water element manipulation; and then we did the bedtime snack and story with Dad in the office before getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night.

Mom did my lesson after that, and then I did some multi-tasking too.  I got my language studies out of the way while soaking in my Jacuzzi, and then took a break from the work while doing my hair.  It was almost twelve-thirty by the time I climbed into bed with Mandy and got started on my archive assignments; and that was nearly two and a half hours ago.  The archive studying was followed by some work on our Magi Project archive; and then I got into some family business work after checking my email and receiving some project updates.

It’s almost three o’clock, and I’m seriously ready for the nap I still have time for; so that’s all for tonight, folks.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 25, 2013



The only real news for today is that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had our after-school study session at Tim’s house today instead of in the conference room at Landry’s automotive; mostly because that room was in use tonight.  It seemed a bit strange to be there unsupervised; but we managed to stay out of trouble and get our assignments done.

I’m sure that nothing happened between Rowen and Tim after Michael and I left – she only stayed to help clean up for a few minutes while Michael needed to hurry to the Inn and I went along so I could walk with him.

You’re welcome, Rowen!

The rest of my day was pretty much standard for a Wednesday; except we had an extra toddler with us for Tai Chi, and Michael stayed to help out with breakfast – and getting Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi ready for the day.  I don’t have anything newsworthy to report from school, and while I’ve done a lot of work and studying since getting home; there isn’t really anything particularly new to report with the family business or my language and archives studies.

Being home all evening and not seeing Michael after leaving him at the Inn didn’t end up in an early start to my usual bedtime computing and studies; so I’ve managed to keep busy until after two o’clock again tonight.  These late nights are going to catch up with me eventually, but with a busy weekend ahead; I don’t expect there will be any chances to turn in early anytime over the next week or so – unless I get too worn out and have no choice but to skip some work for a night.

I didn’t need to do that tonight, but I am ready to crash and nap for a while; so that’s all I have for this update.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 24, 2013



Yes, I think that Tuesdays are going to be my favorite weekday for this school year – especially when Michael and I get to have dinner and spend the evening together.

It’s getting much cooler in the mornings now, but we’re still going out to the river for Tai Chi and just dressing a bit more warmly.  Ethan and Ehlana like being outdoors for that as much as the rest of us do, but then they’d also like to exercise in the house so that they can practice their Tai Chi the way they can instead of playing the public ‘normal toddler’ role.

Michael went home to have breakfast with his parents and sister, and I was kept busy with the usual KidZone day morning routine right up until he and Rowen met up with me here when it was time to get to school.  Tim met us there, and I got to take the heat for being late even though we still had time to drop things off at our lockers before going to home room; and I hadn’t been running behind for any of the reasons Tim kept suggesting.

We had a pretty good day at school, though there really isn’t anything newsworthy to report from our classes; and no major gossip worth repeating here.  Band practice was fun, and so was our study session after that at the computer store.  Tim was late for that because he was playing football at the park, and didn’t quite get all of his work done before Michael and I needed to leave for dinner at his house.

When I stopped in to drop off my computer bag at home, I found out that Ehlana had brought Naomi home with her from KidZone for a sleepover; mostly because her best friend wanted a night off from all of the middle of the night wake-up calls Eli was giving his parents and big sister since getting home from the clinic.  The novelty of a baby in the house is definitely wearing off for her; and I suspect that there will be more sleepovers for her at our house over the next few months when she needs a break.

Jacob wasn’t experimenting with anything tonight, but his dinners are still the best in town; and I really love getting to share those meals with Michael and his family.  Now that Rebecca’s in Grade Nine, we’re not doing much together right now; but she’s still my second-best girlfriend in Witch Falls; and we have fun whenever we can hang out together without the great scholastic and social divide getting in our way like it does when we’re at school.  Hopefully that’ll change again once Michael and I start high school too – at least for a few years.

Listen to me writing about Michael and me years in the future!  Is that the gourmet dinners talking; or could it be that I know something? ;^)

Since he gets to do a lot of cleaning at the Inn, doing the dishes after dinner isn’t Michael’s favorite job; but I think it’s a small price to pay for the awesome food and try to make it fun for both of us too.  We followed that up with an hour or so of music that was split between a guitar lesson and playing the band and music class music we’re learning on our saxophones.  That left us with a half hour or so to cuddle on a sofa in the living room while we talked with Miranda, Jacob, and Rebecca; and then it was time for me to get home so I could do the bedtime story and snack with Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi.

It’s after two again and I’m getting tired fast; so let’s wrap this up in condensed version mode.  The story and snack was in the office with Dad; Mom and I did a little girl chat time with Ehlana and Naomi after Ethan was tucked into bed and kissed goodnight by four girls; and then Mom did a Magi lesson with me in my room before she went to get Dad and take him to bed for the night.  I’ve been doing all of my usual school night studying and work since then, and don’t have anything important to report from my archive or language studies; or from family business work or email news.  We’re back to a couple of after-school work nights; so I really do need to rest up for that – and to help out with Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi in the morning; so that’s it for tonight.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 23, 2013



Let’s begin with some social news from school that definitely leaned toward the weird today.

Nora and Brock have officially joined the Grade Eight couples club, and while they’re still not yet a couple; Vanessa and Allen paired up so they could hang out with the rest of us too.  That’s not really any different than Rowen and Tim hanging out with Michael and me; but it sure feels different.  Rowen and I have never been part of the couples club before when Vanessa and Nora were, so that was part of the weird; while just hanging out together not really that many weeks after we’d been on Nora’s and Vanessa’s hit list seemed very odd – especially since they were mostly trying to ignore our presence while still participating in some of the same conversations we were having with our collective friends.  It’s very obvious that Nora is still very happy about ‘beating’ Tim to the next relationship; and just as obvious that Vanessa really wants to have Allen join the club with her.  I’ll take the under on whether she’ll have him caught by the fall festival.

In other news, while I haven’t mentioned anything other than high school football in my journal so far this season, Monday is a big football day for the guys; and Michael and I are having a fair bit of fun with my ability to keep ahead of all of the guys when it comes to the weekend results and Monday morning quarterbacking of college and professional matches.  Michael should have gotten special commendation for not even suggesting that we watch football on Saturday night; but then again I guess you could say that he did – not that either of us were thinking about football at the time!  ;^)

We played some football at lunchtime too; and Rowen, Gretchen, Sally, and I were all out of the field this time too instead of sitting on the bleachers.  The boys may not let us play tomorrow; but that’s only because our team won fairly easily.  That did have a lot to do with having Michael, Tim, Joshua, and Elliott on our team too; but the guys on the other team were complaining about us being a distraction – not about our football skills.  I’m sure that helps them deal with the fact that they weren’t able to catch up with Rowen or me even once; and it’s not our fault if they spent more time girl-watching instead of keeping an eye on where the football was going.

There wasn’t much else going on at school today other than one little pop quiz; so it seemed comparatively quiet.  I brought Michael, Tim, and Rowen home with me for our after school study session, and then we took Ethan and Ehlana with us to the park for some more football and playground action.  I know the guys really want to play football whenever they can on Michael’s days off – especially when the weather is cooperating; but I have no intention of sitting on the bleachers and watching them once it gets colder.  We took bikes and the trailer with us to the park, and left early enough so that we could do a construction site tour when it was time for all of us to get home for dinner at our respective houses.  The new apartment building is already taking shape; and I’m always impressed with the progress at the lab between one visit and the next.

Michael came home with me long enough to help with Ethan, Ehlana, and the bikes and trailer; but then he went home for dinner while Mom and Dad just had their own kids to feed tonight.  I’d missed out on the cooking, but took care of the clean-up on my own while I waited for Michael, Rowen, and Tim to all come over again so we could have a music practice to get ready for class and band tomorrow; and play some video games in the lounge after that.

Ethan and Ehlana came upstairs with us for the music time; and they both sat on my piano bench and happily plunked away at it while the rest of us were practicing our band music.  While Tim isn’t in the band, he played along with us; usually just picking away at the melody of each song while Michael, Rowen, and I played our assigned parts.  That doesn’t really sound all that great when Michael and I just have basic harmonies for most of our music; but then we also have some long breaks where we can take turns playing along with the melody too.  If Tim keeps working with us, he could get an invitation to the band too; though I’m not sure if he’d want to join or not since he really wants to play football during high school.

Mom let the twins stay with us long enough so that they could have a little video gaming fun with Michael and Tim; but then she took them downstairs when she was ready to put them into the bathtub for their usual Monday night clean-up.  Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I played on until it was time to do the bedtime story and snack with the twins; and then we went downstairs to do that with them – and Mom and Dad – in the office.  Tim still hasn’t spent much time in the office yet, so he’s still really impressed with the set-up there; and wants to convince his parents that they really need a home office like ours too.  I’ll take a wild guess that if they did remodel their office that he’d move in and have his X-Box hooked up to the big screen monitor.  I’d suggest that he should just ask Santa for a bigger television for his room, but then he’s probably asking for the new X-Box One this year – the same as most other boys his age are likely doing this year too – Michael included.

We’re still more than a month away from Halloween, so let’s not get on a Christmas kick quite yet; but Rowen and I will have an easy time this year picking out gifts for boys this year – if enough of those new game systems are available.  Maybe I’ll take a look around my companies and see if I can help out with that potential little problem – I do have a few toy stores in my investment portfolio.

Moving along, Michael, Tim, and Rowen went home when Ethan and Ehlana were taken up to bed, and Tim walked Rowen home while Michael and I spent a couple of minutes saying goodnight on my front porch in a mostly non-verbal sort of way.  Michael was on his way home too by the time Tim and Rowen split up in front of her house; and Rowen and I both stayed outside and watched our boys until they were either home or out of sight.  We exchanged grins and waves before going inside too; and then I went straight to work on my Magi lesson with Mom.

By the time I was finished that and had chatted with Mom and Dad for a little while until Dad was finished his work for the night it was heading toward eleven o’clock.  After coming up to my room, I got changed; climbed into bed with Mandy; and got started on my archive homework.  I spent an hour or so on that; another hour and a half on my language studies; and have been doing my nightly computing and a bit of family business work since then.  It’s heading toward two-thirty, and past-time for me to get to sleep.  That’s all the news I have for today anyway; so until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Cassie's Journal - September 22, 2013



I wasn’t the only one thinking about last night when Michael and I shared our good morning hug and kiss before Tai Chi this morning; and I’m just as sure that our smiles were affected by those thoughts and memories too.  It’s a good thing that I had those memories too because there wasn’t any alone time for Michael and me today.  We spent lots of time together today, but had lots of people around us too except for a few minutes here and there while we were working at the Inn during the buffets.

We exercised with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad did their own workout; and then Michael went home for breakfast while I stayed to help Mom and Dad with making breakfast and getting Ehlana ready for church.  The Seagers and Ayres had the spotlight at church today; and Eli was the little star.  I didn’t even try to get a turn holding him today, but that won’t be a problem in the future – my brother and sister are best friends with Eli’s big sister; so we’ll be able to come up with lots of excuses to spend time with them.

That’s the only news from church except that a ‘bring-what-you-have’ barbeque lunch was set up for family and friends at our house; so after walking with Michael to the Inn I needed to hurry home to get changed and help out with the work.  We were busy for about an hour before the tables were set up and the food was ready; and then it was mostly play time while we ate through until I went to help out at the Inn.  Rowen and I supervised the kids while we had a lunch picnic on the dock or sitting along the riverbank; and then we were sent over to the park to play with them while the adults took care of a quick and easy clean-up.

Mom and Dad were among the adults that came over to the park to play once they were done the work; and the park was a popular place to be this afternoon.  Dad was one of the guys drafted for the ‘old guys’ football team when a pick-up game was put together; and Patrick and Scott got to join Tim and some of the older boys to play against the men's team.  Ethan got to have quite a few football moments, and he ‘played’ for both teams – first with Dad and Uncle Adam; and later with Michael when he joined the game during his afternoon break from the Inn.

Michael and I got to have some play time during his break too, though with Ethan, Ehlana, Rowen, Tim, and a bunch of other kids and parents hanging around the playground with us; it wasn’t anything like our play time last night.  That’s probably a good thing, since while I’m not shy; I don’t plan on making any public displays of nudity ever.

Call me old-fashioned, but it’s just the way I am.

We had fun at the Inn too, though I spent more time working with Rebecca tonight while Michael spent most of the time helping out on the cleaning crew because they were a bit short-handed tonight.  That was also why we stopped to eat shortly after the second buffet started so that he could be back and helping out again once the dirty dishes started rolling in after the diners had finished the first round of trips to the buffet tables.  I stayed until Miranda sent Michael and Rebecca home for the night; though Michael grabbed his computer bag from his house and came home with me so we could blast through the homework we hadn’t gotten done yet this weekend.  We did that in the lounge, but Ethan and Ehlana came upstairs with us so we could all have a telepathic chat while we worked.  They had fun helping us with our homework too, though it didn’t really take long to get our work finished; thanks to a little Magi-powered assistance.

Michael headed home when Mom was ready to put Ethan and Ehlana into the tub after a park play day, so we did our goodnight hug and kisses on my front porch – cutting them short when Miranda started whistling at us as she and Jacob turned the corner onto Riverview on their way home from closing the Inn.  That gave us an excuse for one last goodnight kiss just because Miranda would find it funny, and she did laugh a few times between then and when she put an arm around Michael and they all waved goodnight to me before going inside for the night.

I helped Mom with the rest of bath time after that, and Dad joined us for the snack and story time before we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night.  Mom did a short Magi lesson with me after that, and then we all went to bed.  That let me get a comparatively early start on my nightly computing and studies; though I multi-tasked the first part of that with some quality Jacuzzi time too after my own park play time and the work at the Inn.  As expected, I had extra email too, and while it was fun hearing about the latest college action; there really isn’t anything new to report from Violet, Stephanie, Christina, or Isabelle this week.  They’re all pretty much settled into routines now; having fun; and doing pretty well in all of their courses.

My language studies are coming along slowly with the batch of dialects I’m learning right now, but I sped through my archive homework; and only had a bit of family business work that needed to be done by Monday.  Since I was running ahead of schedule, I did a full check of Hathorne Industries too.  There’s still no sign of anything we need to be immediately worried about, but they’re still doing a lot of really bad things around the world that I wish we could do more about to stop them.  Gwyneth’s public displays of brilliance continue to get attention; and she’s continuing to follow a learning track that’s similar to those of other child prodigies.  The only thing we can’t find out through the Hathorne systems is how her Magi training and development is coming along.  Gawain will be able to teach her some things; but she’ll be at an even bigger disadvantage than Mom was when it comes to learning the abilities of a Magi Master.

Of course, that might be a good thing; but could also be more dangerous if she learns to do things without having control over her talents.  There aren’t any archive records about that kind of thing with Dark Magi, but there are cases of untrained Magi of the Light who weren’t able to be trained for one reason or another; and most of those cases involved some very bad experiences.  I don’t want to imagine what could happen with an out-of-control Dark Magi Master.

That isn’t a great tone to end this update on; so let’s do a quick check on the week ahead.

The main action will be on the weekend with Valerie’s first birthday party in Crystal Springs on Saturday and Michael’s thirteenth birthday here on Sunday.  We haven’t made any plans for after school on Michael’s days off tomorrow and Tuesday, but he and I should shoot for some more alone time before we get back into the work part of our week.  Our football team is playing away games for the next three weeks, and while Rowen and I don’t plan on going to any of those games; Tim wants to go to all of them; and may drag Michael along with him.  That third game is on the Fall Festival weekend, so Tim may change his mind about that; and if I can actually swing some more alone time for Michael and me I have a strong feeling that he’ll pick that time with me over football with Tim.

If not, I’ll just take my clothes off again and convince him – Michael – that he’s making the wrong decision.  ;^)

That’s a much more entertaining way to wrap this up, so...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!