I have a fair bit of news to cover today; but let’s begin
with the travel reports.
First up would be Dad’s trip to Crystal Springs. Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I were all up early
to see him off; and we even added in an early chat with Grandma and Grandpa so
that he wouldn’t miss that one – especially since he’ll miss all of the morning
chats for the rest of the week.
While we’re on that topic, the next trip is going to be
Mom’s overnight trip to the city tomorrow.
Naomi’s third birthday is on Tuesday too, and Ehlana is staying with her
after the party for a sleepover; so Ethan’s doing a sleepover with Aiden. Aunt Leanne was happy to have me stay with
her and Uncle Adam – and help with Zack; so that cleared Mom’s parental
calendar for the night. As usual, no
details of non-public plans are needed or wanted by the kids involved; but we
hope our parents have fun.
Grandma and Grandpa were back to work again today after
taking the weekend off for some sightseeing.
Their second week in India
is going to be one of the busier for them; though that’s as much because of
travel times as number of appointments and meetings. While all of the charity-focused trips are
important, and that work one of the main goals of our family business; the work
that Grandma and Grandpa are doing for the businesses is proving even more
valuable in a lot of ways – and their efforts certainly show up on our
financial bottom line. Since that is
what counts to pay for all of our charity work; I’m really glad that they’re as
interested in that part of the travel opportunities as they are for the
charities.
Finally, on the travel front; the ‘girls’ weekend away’ trip
has pretty much been finalized. As
usual, Mom and Aunt Leanne are coordinating the weekend trip to California that is going
to be a combined visit to see Barb and a birthday celebration for
Patricia. There will be ten women going
along; they’ll leave Friday morning; and get home late Sunday night. While most of the women are in on it, and
helped with the planning; it will be a gift-surprise for three of the girls –
Liz, Hannah, and Stacey Burroughs.
Inviting the new Pastor’s wife along will likely make the gossip network
around here, but I think that Stacey will love the surprise; and will have a blast
with her new friends.
Rowen and I will be wishing we were with them, but then so
will just about every other woman in town – especially since they’ll be away
for the Super Bowl weekend. With Miranda
away, I’ll guess that I’ll be helping out at the Inn
on Super Bowl Sunday; though rumor has it that Jacob may be doing something a
bit different this year while Miranda’s away with the girls. While Mom didn’t give me any details about
that, I can’t help getting a mental picture of a guys’ night, finger-food-only
buffet table; a couple of big screens with the game on; and maybe some video
gaming nooks with yet more football action going on.
I’ll try not to think about that too much between now and
then. That’s all the travel news; so
let’s move on to the daily update.
After Dad left this morning, Mom had three cuddle buddies
until we needed to get up again and start our usual weekday morning
routine. Michael came over for Tai Chi,
and then hurried off to grab some food before heading off to his weight training
at the school. I’ve thought about going
along sometime just for the experience; but I’ll wait a while for that and
avoid the risk of damaging Michael’s rep by having his girlfriend checking up
on him too soon.
Out-lifting him would be fun too; but we’ll probably never
get the chance to have a little Magi-powered weight lifting competition at the
school. Lee Landry can get away with
jokes about bench-pressing farm equipment – he’s got the physique for it. I seriously doubt that anyone would believe
that Tracey Landry or I could pick up combines and throw them across the room.
Anyway, Mom’s trip for tomorrow was pretty much decided on
before I went to school; so she was both a happy camper and busy with the extra
work she wanted to get done today now that she was going to be off playing for
a day and a half or so. NFL football
playoffs were the top story around the school – at least for the guys. There was some interesting girl chat going on
too; including the re-cap of Gretchen’s party with the girls in our grade. I was a bit surprised that Valentine’s Day is
already heading toward the top of the girl chat list, but it is; and some of
the teen guys could be in trouble this year if they don’t get their acts together
between now and then.
It’s a bit too early for me to be thinking much about that –
or late when it comes to the family business; since my Valentine’s Day work was
pretty much done back in November; so let’s get back to current events.
We’re all the way back into the usual class routine now, and
the modules we’re working on will mostly take us through to March Break. For our Day One schedule, that means ongoing
politics and political history for our Social Studies and History classes as we
continue to work up to the big Washington D.C. trip at the end of April. That’s another upcoming event that isn’t
really on my radar yet; but Uncle Nick – Mr. Ayres – and some other teachers
are working on that already; including everything from proper photo
identification and documents to flights and hotel reservations. I have enough on my plate, so keeping up with
those details isn’t high on my list of priorities; but I’ll probably change my
mind about that by April.
Dinner and play time at Michael’s house tonight was at the
top of that list; though we had our usual after-school study session at my
house first, and followed that up with some outdoor play time with Ethan and
Ehlana. It wasn’t as warm outside as it
was yesterday; but still well-above freezing; and the snow melt continued all
day. We probably won’t have much snow
left by next week if the forecast holds; but I’m sure winter will be back again
soon enough – it’s way too early in the year to be hoping for spring.
Rowen and Tim headed for the computer store and shop when
Michael and I were ready to drop Ethan and Ehlana off with Mom before
back-tracking to his house. As with
breakfast on Sunday, I’m fairly sure that Jacob was going all-out with the
cooking to keep distracted while missing his oldest son and future
daughter-in-law. No, Jake and Stephanie
haven’t gotten engaged yet; but it’s inevitable. Miranda, Michael, Rebecca, and I were happy
to help out by eating all of the amazing food; and we really had a good couple
of hours together – including the post-meal clean-up.
Michael and I did our music practices after that – both my
guitar lesson and saxophone practice to get ready for music class and our first
band practice of the New Year. We don’t
have the new music for that yet; but do know that our next ‘show’ will be the
seniors’ Valentine’s Day party at the church reception hall. We had an hour or so of chat time in the
living room with Miranda, Jacob, and Rebecca before I went home too; but the
only news I have from the rest of the night has to do with a little chat that
Rebecca and I had between our music practice and hanging out in the living
room.
She’d been in her room while Michael and I were in his; so I
stopped in for a visit while he went on ahead to get drinks and a snack for
us. I think that it’s been building up
for a while now; but Rebecca isn’t very happy with how her first year of high
school is going. A big part of that is
because she and Jenny are not moving in the same circles right now; so they’re
really not spending much time together outside of school. They’re still best friends, and that isn’t
going to ever change for them; but Rebecca is feeling left out.
That doesn’t mean she wishes she was on the cheerleading
squad, or doing anything else that Jenny is doing this year; but she also
hasn’t figured out where she fits in either.
Not having a boyfriend doesn’t bother her at all except for when it
excludes her from things that Jenny and her other friends are doing. Unfortunately, that means that she misses out
on a lot of the friend-time fun – particularly on the weekends. I didn’t help much other than being a
sympathetic ear; but I am going to work on finding things that we can do
together – and maybe with Rowen and some other girls – over the next few weeks. This week will be tough with everything else
I have on the go, but we do have a long weekend coming up; so a girls’ night
movie and make-over could be an option.
I went home in time to do the bedtime story and snack with
the twins; Mom and I did my Magi lesson after that; and then I came up to my room
to get started on my usual bedtime studies and computing. All of that ranged from fun and exciting to
ultra-tedious; but there really isn’t anything new to report from any of it
either. My archive and language studies
took a couple of hours, but I didn’t have much family business work to do; so
it’s only a bit after one o’clock now.
I’m still well-ahead of schedule this week, so I can take the night off
tomorrow if needed – though I’ll probably just work while waiting for Zack’s
night-time feedings so that Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam can sleep through the
night.
I guess that’s it for now, and I’m ready for some nap time;
so...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
