We had some rain roll into the area while we were sleeping, and
it was still raining when it was time for Tai Chi; so we exercised
indoors. Michael came over for that, but
then needed to get home again to have breakfast with his parents and sister;
and help out with the work they were doing to get ready for the party at the
park.
I needed to help out with that work here too, but Rowen and
I also were kept busy taking care of Ethan, Ehlana, and my cousins too –
getting them fed and dressed for a play day at the park. The church service was at ten o’clock today;
and the ‘game-time’ decision to go ahead with the service in the park was made
when the rain pretty much ended by eight o’clock. The ground was a bit wet still, but that worked
out better for everyone who was also working around the park to get everything
set up for the food and game booths – and take care of some last-minute
grooming of the baseball diamonds.
That made for a crazy few hours of nearly non-stop action;
ending with the start of the church service after Rowen and I had been the
herdmasters getting the younger kids to the park while Mom and Dad drove the
truckload of food and supplies there and dealt with that before joining us
during the music the teens were leading to warm-up the congregation ahead of
the service.
Pastor John is officially employed now, and though the teens
did most of the work today; he delivered the short message that was included
instead of a full sermon on holiday weekends; and led two of the prayers. I get to read and hear about all kinds of
charity work through our family business; but it’s going to be cool to hear all
of the stories Pastor John and Stacey have from their years of mission work as
we get to know them better. We should invite
them to a dinner and a movie night sometime soon too; since Rebekkah will be
growing up with Leah – and with Aunt Leanne’s baby.
Michael had already been at the park by the time we got
there; and he was busy helping his parents; but sat with me during the service. The next hour and a half was a blast of energized
music and fun; and sharing the music part of that with Michael is even better
now. The one difference that I really
noticed today, though, was the absence of the graduated high school seniors;
and the addition of the new Grade Nine students – including Rebecca and
Jenny. Neither of them is really into
performing music, but they seemed to be having fun with the skits they were
involved with; and they joined in for the worship songs that were performed by
the entire teen troupe.
It was nearly eleven-thirty when the service ended, and
Michael stayed with us while we got everything organized for lunch. Rowen was juggling family time too, so she
had lunch with her parents, brother, and their families; while Michael and I
were having lunch with mine and dinner with his family mostly because my Mom
and Dad were scheduled to help at a food booth during dinner.
We had Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara with us to help with our
food booth assignment at lunch; and we were all loaded down with trays of fries
and drinks to distribute while other groups of parents, grandparents, and kids
had been busy with getting other food options – like burgers, hot dogs, and a
selection of different home-cooked foods and salads. The younger guys, including Ethan, wanted to
hang out with Michael while we ate; and I had most of the younger girls with
me. Having a cheerleading competition
with Miranda would have been fun, but I liked having the day off this year
too. We had our noon meal at the ball
diamond, but since our team wasn’t playing; we picked a spot well down the line
into the deep outfield. Most of us
didn’t feel the need to watch the entire game either, and Michael and I left to
meet up with Rowen and Tim after we finished eating. The Gas Guzzlers eventually won the co-ed
championship over the Big Shots by a score of nineteen to sixteen, and
Michael’s Uncle and Aunt were happy that one of the teams they’d sponsored this
season had earned a win; but we didn’t even catch that bit of news until
dinnertime.
Just as a quick aside, those championship awards usually end
up being prominently displayed at the sponsor businesses; and there’s more to
that side of the competition than I really pay any attention to at all. I have noticed that some business owners take
the whole thing more seriously than others; and it isn’t surprising to me at
all that Miranda and her brothers are among the most competitive – as are the
Landrys and Sheldons.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I spent the afternoon together, and
had some time to hang out on our own; but we spent more time with our families
in a series of cameo play visits. We got
involved in a little co-ed football scrimmage with Tim’s family; followed that
up with a river swim with mine; moved on to some game booth action with
Michael’s parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins; and we were drafted for a
volleyball game by Rowen’s parents. We
had time for one swim on our own – though that was relatively speaking when
there were lots of people cooling off in the river all afternoon and evening.
Grandma and Grandpa would have taken Ethan and Ehlana for
dinner while Mom and Dad were busy, but they wanted to come with Michael and me
instead; so we took custody of them when Mom and Dad went to work their shift
at one of the charity food booths. Since
the Stone family was hanging out with the Bassetts, they had Sophia to play
with while we ate; and Michael and I had Jessica and Ryan with us most of the
time too. We had some teen support for
that, and Michael and I had as much fun with Rebecca, Erica Bassett, and Caleb
Palmer as we all did with the younger kids.
Between getting the food, eating, and then helping with the park
clean-up; Michael and I spent two hours with his family; and that pretty much
took us through to the start of the dance.
Rowen and Tim had been with their own families again during
dinner, but they were together when they came by to collect Michael and me on
their way to the dance. I’m sure that
they just happened to bump into each other along the way; since they couldn’t
possibly have gone looking for each other first. ;^)
I liked going to dances before dating Michael, but I’m
learning to love them a lot now. The
payback for my youthful pranks on Violet and Dillon is still going on, but
Michael and I had fun when Ethan and Ehlana cut in on us a couple of times; and
we had some dances with other members of our families – including his parents
and mine. I don’t know about him, but
dancing with both of our fathers was way too wedding-like for my comfort even
if it was fun too.
Rowen and Tim still aren’t ‘a couple’, but they sure
resembled one during the slow dances they shared. I wasn’t sure whether Tim was even going to
ask her to dance at first, but that changed about a minute after she was asked
to dance by a cute boy who was showing way too much interest in my best friend
for Tim’s liking. Rowen was very happy
to dance with him after that; and the four of us were together for most of the
up-tempo songs.
For once, I can report that there was minimal personal
tweeird going on tonight. Vanessa and
Nora were keeping an eye us tonight, and Nora was particularly interested
whenever Tim and Rowen were dancing together; but they were also getting some
attention from a total of five guys; and seemed to be enjoying themselves most
of the time. Maybe there’s hope for
peace and harmony in the Grade Eight classroom this year after all!
There was other teen action going on worth reporting,
though. This is Joel’s last night in
town, and according to Rebecca; he and Jenny had disappeared a few times today
– including an early departure from the dance.
I was only in close proximity to them once, and while they were both
acting like they were handling the impending separation; I know that Joel was
totally faking the cool. Jenny’s outlook
and emotions regarding boys and dating continue to be worlds-apart from my own
perceptions, but I wasn’t surprised to pick up no sense at all of loss or pain
from her – there was really only a desire to have one last night of fun with
Joel mixed in with excitement and anticipation for the imminent start of her
high school adventures.
Rebecca was getting a fair bit of attention from the boys
tonight; including from locals, visiting family, and teen tourists. I won’t comment on why so many teenage boys
think that small town girls would be interested in one-night flings on the last
holiday weekend of the summer; but I have to wonder if word has gotten around
about Josiah and Christina this summer; inspiring – or emboldening – some of
the teen cousins. That could work both
ways, I suppose, but I didn’t see any of the home-town teens making any moves
on any ‘outsiders’ – just the responses to the flirting and invitations to
dance or go for walks. Getting back to
Rebecca’s specific case, she danced with a few different boys, but she only did
that once with each of them; and she spent the rest of the time hanging out
with some of her friends and family – including some visits with us.
The cute award of the night goes to Naomi for ‘asking’ Ethan
to dance with her. They both needed to
play normal toddlers in public, so the dancing wasn’t very good; but Naomi
earned bonus comedy points for refusing to give up her dance partner when Aunt
Leanne tried to cut in. I really love
getting to watch my little brother, sister, and their friends grow up together;
and I’m sure that will be nearly as much fun with my cousins.
While I didn’t feel the need to escape the park and dance
early this year, Ethan and Ehlana are still young; and Mom and Dad were ready
to start packing up and heading home before the dance was over – at about the
same time that Aunt Leanne had hit her fun limit for the day. Michael and I joined in to help out with the
work; rounding up my cousins; and getting everyone and everything to our
respective homes. Rowen and Tim had
stayed at the dance, but it was nearly over by the time we had Ethan and Ehlana
in bed; so Michael and I opted for a bedtime swim and riverside chat instead of
trying to meet up with them for what little time we had left before Michael
needed to be home and getting some sleep ahead of what was sure to be a
crazy-busy day at the Inn with breakfast and dinner buffets basically running
one after the next all day.
Mom and Dad had done the goodnight hugs and kisses with us
before we went outside and they went to bed, so all was quiet at my house as we
quietly played in the water for a while and then cuddled on one of the benches
and wound down from the busy, fun day.
We admired the stars; talked a bit about the action at the park and a
fair bit about going back to school on Tuesday.
We’re both excited about that, and though we didn’t get much time to
spend with our friends today – other than Rowen and Tim – I was reminded that
we’ll get to see our ‘country kid’ friends every weekday again. WE always have good intentions about doing
stuff together during the summer; but then life gets in the way and we run out
of time before actually doing much of anything except birthday parties.
Michael went home at eleven-thirty – earlier than we’d have
liked; but later than he should have when an early wake-up call was in his near
future. I came up to my room; took care
of my still-wet hair so it wouldn’t be a total disaster by morning; got ready
for bed; and then cuddled with Mandy and my computer so I could get started on
my nightly email, news, entertainment, and sports checks. While I was working on that and dealing with
some family business project requests, Rowen checked in with me and we had a
little virtual chat. She and Tim had
split up after the dance to help their own families with gathering their
day-camp gear and getting everything home; but he had apparently also managed
to steal a goodnight kiss moment with her too not long before the end of the
dance. That, and the dancing with him,
had made her a very happy camper; so we’ve been talking right through to right
now.
I’m finished my work, and it’s heading toward one o’clock;
so we both need to shut down and get some sleep. While we don’t have any weekend guests here
tonight, there is still the morning shopping adventure to rest up for; and I’ll
probably go over to Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark’s house after breakfast to help
out with the packing to go home work there so we’ll have more time for those
big Labor Day sales. We’re going to the
noon buffet at the Inn so that our aunts, uncles, and cousins can be on the
road home in good time; so it’s sure to be non-stop action pretty much from the
time we wake up until the family and tourist exodus begins.
A nap may be an option after that, but then I’m also
seriously thinking about helping out at the Inn for a while too so that I can
spend some time with Michael – and with Miranda on her birthday; so that might
not happen.
Rowen just agreed with me about getting some sleep, and has
signed off; so it’s time for me to wrap this up and call it a night too. While I’m thinking about signing off, it’s
the first day of September; we’re about to start a new school year; and I
should come up with a new journal ending line.
Since I’m starting the new school year with a boyfriend; let’s go with
something I’m sure he’d find entertaining.
Since he is such a big fan of the movies; it works for me.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
