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!
