Congratulations, Heather and Adam – you’re now officially
having a baby!
That was the big story around town today; though there was a
quieter, related news tip from Aunt Leanne when she advised us that Heather and
Adam were talking to her about buying one of the new homes now that they were
going to need more room for two kids and would need to move anyway. They’ll be keeping that quiet for a while;
but Aunt Leanne is sure she’ll have a deal worked out with them before she’s
off with her own new baby – though they’re not looking to move until next
spring.
That news reached the kids at school by lunchtime, so Rowen
and I stopped in at the garden center to congratulate Heather; but she was busy
and we basically stayed long enough for a couple of hugs and a thirty second
chat before moving on. Before I get to
the rest of the after-school action; let’s cover the rest of the events from
earlier today.
Tai Chi was chilly this morning, but we still exercised by
the river. Michael went home for
breakfast today, and then he and Rebecca met up with Rowen and me for the walk
to school. The first Friday of the
school year is always a Day One schedule so that we start out with two lesson
days for each class. I may like starting
the day with music more, but I have fun in Spanish class too. After today, I think it’s time to just report
any school news, since I expect to have fun in every class from now on with
Michael, Rowen, and Tim.
There isn’t much of that kind of news to report today. The guys were mostly in football mode. Our team has an important school rivalry and
division away game tonight, and after the big win last week; hopes are higher
than ever for our chances of doing really well this season. Kyle may want a championship for his senior
year more than anything; but he’s also smart enough not to run around making
guarantees or anything like that. While
he doesn’t actually need it, his ultimate goal for this year is earning a
football scholarship from his father’s college.
That isn’t an easy task when you’re not playing in the elite football
divisions; but Lee does have some pull with his former alma mater; and I’m sure
there will be scouts keeping an eye on Kyle this year.
Since football was already the topic of choice while we ate
lunch, I wasn’t surprised when another scrimmage game broke out; or that
Michael and Tim wanted to play. There
were too many guys wanting to play today, so Rowen and I opted to sit that game
out; watch the action from the bleachers; and talk with some of the other
girls. That wasn’t as much fun as
playing with Michael and Tim would have been, but it worked out okay not to
have that extra exercise when we were sent on a nice long cross country run in
Phys-Ed class. Michael and Tim had to
let up a little bit so that Rowen and I could keep up with them; but we were
still a good couple of minutes ahead of the next closest runners – and
well-ahead of the stragglers who had been more interested in some non-running
play time while away from the school.
Though we’d hit the showers at the end of class, that run
was the main reason why we went for a swim after meeting up at my house once
we’d each checked in with parents; dropped bags off at home; and Rowen and I
had done that visit to the garden center – and packed an overnight bag for her
while at her house. We took Ethan and
Ehlana with us for that, and then had a snack break with them before hopping on
our bikes and heading over to the park.
Michael and Tim were drafted for some more football, so Rowen and I went
riding on the trails; and let them meet up with us there once they’d had yet
another football fix.
Michael and Tim weren’t the only extra guests for dinner and
a movie night, but Mom and Dad had other volunteers for the cooking crew; so we
had time for another swim with Ethan and Ehlana after getting back from our
trail ride. Rowen, Ehlana, and I had
time to play with our hair after that so we’d be appropriately beautiful for
our dinner company while Michael and Tim mostly talked football with Dad and
the other guys around the grills. All of
our guests were here by the time we joined the party again, and one of my
favorite parts of the evening was getting to spend some time getting to know
Pastor John, Stacey, and Rebekkah Burroughs.
Their invitation had been Aunt Grace’s idea, since they were
the only other ‘new’ family in town. She
sure hit it off right away with Stacey – as did Aunt Leanne and Aunt
Deborah. Rebekkah is as adorable as
Leah, and while the two babies aren’t quite ready to play together; they did
spend quite a bit of time watching each other and smiling a lot.
I don’t know if it would be possible to track this, but I’ve
wondered a few times whether Magi babies and toddlers can sometimes sense each
other – even if they don’t know what it is they’re feeling. The stronger Magi have been able to learn how
to sense other Magi easily enough, and now that we know that it can be done; it
is possible that part of the reason I was able to make that discovery was
simply because the built-in ability was there all along and just needed to be
understood and explored. Check out our
Magi Project archive – by the time you read this; the answer to that question
might just be there!
Getting back to the main story, we were in the dining room
for the meal so we could sit together; and not have the extra work dealing with
getting extra tables and chairs out and put away again. Michael and I sat across the table from Rowen
and Tim; and we had Ethan and Ehlana as toddler buffers to the closest adults
with Ethan between Michael and Grandpa; and Ehlana between me and Aunt
Leanne. It’s a good thing that the boys
were able to talk football before dinner, because Michael and Tim likely didn’t
find much of the dinner conversation particularly interesting – and some of it
included too much information for them.
Yes, there was a Pastor in the room, but that didn’t keep
the women in my family from including some blunt chat about late-term pregnancy
and baby-related issues – and Stacey had no problem discussing those topics
with them. I’m sure that you won’t be
surprised to find out that Michael and Tim tried their best to pretend that
they didn’t hear anything to do with breasts, breast-feeding, and how to deal
with pain and soreness. The blushing
gave them away, though, and that was mild compared to when the new and
expecting moms talked about the actual delivery process – or the ‘initiation
ceremony’ as Aunt Leanne put it.
Tim was also surprised to see that Mom and Dad had served
alcohol with dinner with our new Pastor here, though I guess it was the fact
that Pastor John and Stacey each had a glass of wine with dinner too. That led to my favorite comedy moment of the
evening; and that came from Pastor John.
He noticed Tim’s glances and surprise; and spent a minute entertaining
all of us by reminding Tim that Jesus’ first miracle was to change water into
wine – “just to keep the party going” at the wedding in Cana. I’d heard that for the first time in a Mark
Lowry comedy routine; but it’s still just as funny – maybe a bit funnier – to
hear it from our own Pastor.
Grandma and Grandpa wanted to here the latest from our first
week at school, so we took turns talking to them about that, but Michael and I
were also kept busy with Ethan and Ehlana.
They had to play normal toddlers around the extra guests – including
Michael and Tim – and that always makes for a bit more work with them; along
with the bonus entertainment.
Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I were drafted for the clean-up
crew, so we were busy with that after dinner, and then we came up to the lounge
with Ethan and Ehlana for the rest of the evening. We had some parents go with us; though that
was really only because Stacey had wanted to see my room after hearing about it
earlier. When she saw the musical
instruments, Stacey wanted to hear us play; so while Michael and Rowen played
my saxophone and her flute, Ehlana and I played my keyboard for her. Stacey will gradually be taking over the
Sunday school, kid, and teen programs at church; and she advised us to expect
to be drafted in the future to help out with music – though Michael has already
played guitar for the younger kids quite a few times once he was good enough to
accompany the kids’ choir or different classes.
The plans for the movie part of the night were changed
because of how many guests we had tonight, and while I would have liked to
spend that time with my favorite adults, it was nice for them to get to watch a
‘grown-up’ movie while we watched a toddler-friendly flick in the lounge. Not having to sit on the floor or on dining
room chairs was more comfortable; and cuddling with Michael and Ethan was a
great added bonus. Rowen and Tim weren’t
exactly officially cuddling with each other, but they were cuddling with
Ehlana; and she maneuvered them around to the point where they were so close
together that Tim could have just put an arm around Rowen and cuddle with both
girls.
After watching that first movie with Ethan and Ehlana we
took a break that included a post-movie visit with most of our guests before
they started heading home for the night.
Grandma and Grandpa took care of getting the twins into bed before they
left too, so after doing a round of goodnight hugs and kisses; Michael and Tim
came back upstairs with Rowen and me so we could play video games for a while
before they both needed to be home. My
gaming library isn’t all that extensive, but more than half of my games were
bought with Chris and Martin in mind; and I’ve picked up a few games since then
that I know are teen guy favorites here; so Michael and Tim haven’t gotten
bored yet – and they can always bring their own games along once they do get to
that point.
Michael and I got to have more cuddle time together, so it
didn’t matter to me if we played video games or watched another movie; but it
still seemed that it was time for them to go home long before I was ready to
say goodnight to Michael. Ehlana wasn’t
the only girl passively playing matchmaker tonight; and Rowen was very happy
when Michael and I left them alone in the lounge to ‘straighten up’ while we
took our glasses and snack bowls down to the kitchen to wash them up.
Their goodnight kiss must have been really good because they
both forgot all about the work part of why they’d stayed in the lounge. I’m not complaining about that in comparison
to the goodnight hugs and kisses Michael and I shared in the kitchen; but we
got our work done too. We’d had time for
that, since there was no way we were going back upstairs to check in on Rowen
and Tim or round them up; and we got to have the bonus front porch goodnight
kiss when Rowen and I went outside to see Michael and Tim on their way
home. They may not be ready for public
displays of boyfriend-girlfriend affection for different reasons; but I think
that Rowen could get over the shy if Tim would just get around to helping her
out with that.
Don’t worry about that Rowen – he just needs more time. Two months ago he was still pretty much
completely deaf, dumb, and blind to you; and there isn’t a girl in the world
who would be surprised to find out that boys get over being dumb much slower
than the other two.
Moving along, Rowen and I had to straighten up the lounge
after we came back up to my room, and then we got ready for bed and climbed in
with Mandy and our computers to have a little chat while I did my usual nightly
computing. She also watched some Mark
Lowry comedy clips on YouTube after I’d mentioned that connection to Pastor
John’s water-to-wine comments; so we had a few laughs too. After three really late nights, I’m ready to
get at least a little extra sleep; though that’s relative, since it’s quickly
heading toward one o’clock already.
Before I wrap this up, though, I should mention that our
team won their road game tonight against rivals Maple Valley
in a bit of a blow-out. We piled up
fifty-one points while Kyle and the defense only gave up two field goals and
had four defensive scores. Yes, our
offense had touchdowns too, but Kyle gives them the huge advantage of playing
with a short field for most of the game.
If not for that, our offense is fairly evenly matched to the players on
most of the other teams – and not as good as some. Next up: a home game against Meadowvale – the
first half of a two-game home stand.
I guess that I’ll be missing dinner and a movie night for
the next two weeks! Maybe Mom and Dad
will bring Ethan and Ehlana to one of the games so we can still hang out with
them too.
Other than work tomorrow, we don’t really have anything
booked for this weekend; but we’re all ready for a break anyway after a summer
of nearly non-stop action. Rowen and I
are still winding down now, but I’m just about tired enough to sleep; there
isn’t anything else to report for tonight; and it’s time to put my computer
down and get a bit more serious about that extra couple of hours of sleep
tonight.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
