The biggest surprise for me today is that it’s after two
o’clock; and I’m still awake.
Considering the fact that I was falling asleep about four hours ago
while cuddling with Michael at his house when Miranda suggested that it was
time for me to go home and get some sleep; I didn’t expect to get much work
done tonight. That changed, and I got my
second wind after getting home; but I’ll get to that part of the report in a
bit.
First up, though, let’s back up to the start of the day. I didn’t mention it last night, but while
Chris and Martin were home before Rowen and I went to sleep, they had invited
Jonathan to stay with us; and then all three boys played video games in the
living room until whatever time they crawled into bed. They weren’t even sure when they finally got
around to crashing; but I can confirm that it was not easy getting them going
again in time to have breakfast and get ready for church. Fortunately, that was Uncle Rick’s problem –
Rowen and I were busy enough sharing bathroom time with Dawn and Jillian; and
doing the rest of our usual Sunday morning routine.
For me, that included a chilly Tai Chi by the river, and I
was reminded how much I missed getting to start the day with Michael yesterday
while we were busy at the clinic – though getting to be there for Zack’s birth
was a better-than-fair trade-off. As I
mentioned yesterday, we had the Rice family with us, so other than having four
tween girls sharing one bathroom, and dealing with three tired and grouchy teen
boys; it wasn’t all that hard to do breakfast and the clean-up for
fourteen. Most of us even managed to be
on our way to church in time to walk there with Michael and his family.
We were at church early enough for a morning meet and greet
with the rest of our family, and Michael, Rowen, and I were again recruited for
kid control with my younger cousins, brother, and sister until we went to
Sunday school. Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Jayden,
and their parents had spent the night with Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark, while
Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. The Carringtons and Johnsons had been split
up at three houses, including Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s place; and Uncle
Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack sat with that half of their family during the
service.
Aunt Leanne had to put on a bit of an act today so that our
healing gift wouldn’t be too obvious; though she really was tired after their
first night at home with Zack. I did
think that she was the most beautiful brand-new Mom I’ve seen in Witch Falls
since Mom gave birth to Ethan and Ehlana.
Zack was certainly the star today with his family, friends, and
neighbors – just as all newborns are here.
He slept a lot; was mostly unimpressed with his celebrity status; and
showed off his impressive lung capacity a couple of times when he was tired of
being passed around and just wanted his Mommy.
I didn’t even try to spend much time with Aunt Leanne, Uncle
Adam, and Zack again today – they had enough stress in their lives without adding
more, and though Ethan and Ehlana were around them more often than I was; they
mostly played with Jayden and stayed out of the way too. The service today wasn’t one of the extended
sessions, but the meet and greet afterward took a while for our family; and I
left to walk with Michael to the Inn before
continuing home. That gave me time to
get changed before everyone else got there, and then I helped Mom with Ethan
and Ehlana so that they were ready for another play afternoon at the fall
festival. We – the kids and teens – were
all at the park shortly after the festival opened for the day at noon; and we
started out by having lunch with some help from assorted parents and
grandparents. There was another, smaller
group with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne at their house, but Mom and Dad were the
only Witch Falls members of the family there for
lunch; and only because they were in charge of the food.
Rowen and I weren’t really all that interested in going on
more rides today, but we did a couple of rounds of the midway – the first with
the younger kids; and the second with Michael, Tim, Dawn, and Jillian so that
they could have another blast of fun on the thrill rides. We also caught two kid shows and part of the
talent competition finale; and made a last run through some of the show
pavilions that my cousins hadn’t gotten to visit yesterday.
All of the kids and teens needed to be at Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne’s house for an early dinner before almost all of our guests were
heading home. I helped out with getting
the younger kids there, but then Mom and Dad let me go and help out at the Inn
since they were going to be having a very busy buffet – especially the last one
with many of the festival volunteers doing the annual celebration dinner. It took me a while to get through my goodbye
hugs and kisses, and then Rowen and I had a little chat on her front porch
before I hurried on to the Inn; but I was still there in time to help out with
getting the first wave of food ready and out for the early buffet.
While I missed out on the tail end of the family time, they
were really having a fast meal and then running around to get packed up, the
vehicles loaded, and on the road so they wouldn’t be travelling too late on a
school night; so I didn’t really miss all that much. I don’t expect to see them tomorrow, but
Uncle Blaine and Grandpa Duncan are staying another night while Grandma Mercy
went home with Aunt Alison and the kids.
The guys are staying so that Uncle Blaine can take advantage of the trip
to have some meetings with Aunt Grace and the construction company owners and
managers. There haven’t been any
problems for his end of the jobs that couldn’t be handled on conference calls
or by phone and email; but the in-person touch does help keep everything
running smoothly. I’m sure that Grandpa
and Aunt Grace have been enjoying the extra time with their brothers too.
Both of the buffet sittings were full at the Inn, but the second was much rowdier with the festival
volunteers all ready to celebrate the end of another successful festival. This year was particularly good because of
the warm, mostly sunny weather; and what bit of rain we got this weekend came
after the park was closed for the night.
While we were really busy in the kitchen, I had a lot of fun working
with Rebecca and Michael. Rebecca had
time to tell me all about the time she’d spent with Jason Johnson, and while
she mostly had fun; it wasn’t exactly a perfect weekend. As I’ve already mentioned, she does like
Jason, but she wasn’t happy with Jenny when she made excuses to go off with
Garth and leave Rebecca alone with Jason.
He’s trying to move along faster than she wants to go too; so that’ll be
a problem if he doesn’t back off. If
that wasn’t enough for her, there was also a fairly awkward moment for her when
she was trying to keep some distance between herself and Jason while in line
for a ride last night only to have that scene complicated when Chris, Martin,
and Jonathan got in line not far behind them.
The extremely weird part of that moment didn’t even click
for her until the two boys exchanged greetings that showed they obviously knew
each other. Jonathan and Jason are
distant cousins. I certainly hadn’t
thought about the fact that her first boyfriend and potentially her next one
are related, but once she mentioned it; I could immediately recognize the
similarities the two boys share. Rebecca
hasn’t figured out how she feels about that, but I’m sure that she won’t let
the cousin connection alone influence whether she gets more involved with Jason
or not.
Rebecca, Michael, and I stayed at the Inn
until the clean-up was getting close to being finished; and then Miranda sent
us home. I went with Michael and Rebecca
to their house, and while Rebecca went upstairs to have a hot bath; Michael and
I cuddled on the sofa and didn’t really watch the Sunday night football game
until Miranda and Jacob got home. I’d
like to say that we spent that alone time making out, but I really was ready to
fall asleep; and we only shared a few soft, sweet kisses while I happily dozed
along in half-consciousness. I came back
to life when Michael’s parents got back, but as our conversation drifted along;
I started to doze again – and that’s when Miranda sent me home.
Michael saw me off with another front porch goodnight kiss
and hug; and then watched me walk home before going inside again. While I could have gone to sleep then, Mom
and Dad were working in the office; and Mom wanted to do a Magi lesson with me
before we all went to bed for the night.
We did a Healing lesson; Dad finished getting what he needed to have
done for his work in Crystal
Springs on Monday; and
then I went upstairs ahead of them while he packed his cases and Mom did a last
bit of work in the kitchen.
The Magi lesson had woken me up, so I multi-tasked my
studies with some Jacuzzi time; climbed into bed with Mandy by shortly before
midnight; and continued with my studying and some family business work for
another two hours before moving on to my nightly computer checks and this
journal update. That isn’t going to give
me time for much rest before we’ll be up again to see Dad off on his way to the
city; but I need to work when I can – especially since Mom and I will be busier
than usual this week with Dad away and Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam needing help
with Zack.
Whatever happens, I’m sure we’re going to be in for a very
interesting week – even if it might not seem to be exciting compared to the
last three days. For now, though, I
really do need to get some sleep, so I’m out of here.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
