Happy 36th Birthday, Mom!
You are once again married to a younger man – numerically –
for the next eight months.
While I’m thinking about that, I have a couple of comments
to make about my mother. First, she
looks like she’s closer to twenty-six, and second; she’s much more confident
about herself now than she was in the years before we moved here. Her beauty is still usually very understated,
but she’s comfortable with it now; and there’s a quiet confidence that wasn’t
there before either. I really love all
of that; and it’s a fairly awesome bonus to know that I’m going to look that
great when I grow up!
Before I get started on the birthday report, there’s one
more important news flash that gets the second place spot on the daily update –
Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I found out this morning that Aunt Grace is
pregnant! As with Aunt Deborah, it’ll be
a little while before she’ll be far enough along to get positive test results;
but we won’t be able to tell her about it early like Mom could for Aunt
Deborah. There does seem to be a bit of
a trend here, and though the lab won’t have been up and running for long by the
time Aunt Grace will be due; the timing for her shouldn’t be a problem. She won’t be involved in the research that Uncle
Adam will be in charge of anyway; and once the construction bills are paid; her
job will be fairly easy for a while – until it’s time to move on product
development.
It’s also going to be very cool for our two new cousins to
grow up together – and even be in the same class when they go to school. Sure, I see that at school with other
families, but it isn’t something that Ethan, Ehlana, or I will get to
experience; and even Michael, Rebecca, Tim, and Rowen don’t have cousins at
school who are in the same grade with them.
We found out about that when we had Mom’s birthday breakfast
at the Inn this morning, but before I get to that; there was a lot more going
on before we headed over to the Inn. Dad was awake early so that he could get
ready and have time to watch Mom open three birthday gifts in bed before he
needed to grab a quick breakfast and hit the road. There was time for a short birthday cuddle in
Mom’s bed after we saw Dad out, and then I took care of getting Ethan and
Ehlana ready for the day while Mom only needed to worry about herself. We skipped Tai Chi, but Michael came over in
time to help me to get the minivan packed.
We had fifteen minutes to spare by the time we loaded Ethan and Ehlana
into their car seats and Mom drove us over to the Inn.
That gave us time for a little fun with Michael’s parents,
and they were working on their days off this week because of the holiday –
though the extra business from Mom’s little breakfast party made for a busier
than usual morning rush anyway. We were
there first, so Mom was able to welcome our family and friends as they arrived;
and that’s how she found out about Aunt Grace before Ethan, Ehlana, or I
did. Everyone in our local family was
there, and Aunt Leanne and Grandma had invited a dozen or so friends too – plus
their kids. That’s why Michael and I
were able to hang out with Rowen and Tim while having breakfast while Mom had
fun with the other adults. Ethan,
Ehlana, and I missed out on most of the gift-opening while hanging out with
‘the kids’, but we got to have Mom to ourselves for most of the rest of the
day; so it only seemed fair that we shared her this morning with everyone else.
I’m sure that Dad’s thinking that it’s fair that he gets to
have her to himself right now as I write this; but let’s not go there!
Breakfast was an hour-long blast of fun, but one good thing
about breakfast birthday parties – at least on weekdays – is that they have a
time limit. For some of our guests, that
meant needing to get to jobs; and we were able to get on the road for Crystal Springs by nine o’clock. The trip there felt a bit weird to me because
Michael insisted that I sit up front with Mom while he sat on the back bench
seat and the twins were in their car seats on the middle bucket seats. It isn’t that I didn’t want to keep Mom
company, because that was fun; but Michael and I have sat together almost every
time we’ve been traveling together since we started dating. He joked about getting to watch the cartoons
with Ethan and Ehlana while I couldn’t do that from the front, and Michael did
have fun with Ethan and Ehlana; but I’m sure that he would’ve liked to cuddle
with me as much as I wanted to be sitting with him for the hour and a half or
so we were on the road.
Mom has quite a few things she wants to pick up while we’re
in the city, and since we had time before lunch, and didn’t have company with
us to worry would find out anything they shouldn’t about the twins; we stopped
in at a lab supply store to pick up some gear and chemicals that Ethan and
Ehlana needed for their college studies.
While my brother and sister have the equipment they need for their
studies, they still need to add new gear as they need it; and the supplies –
particularly for chemistry and biology – need to be replaced more often now
that they’re doing advanced work. I did
a lot of that work with Mom when I was their age, but it was definitely easier
for us to study those subjects without having to worry about anyone seeing us
working with comparatively dangerous chemicals or doing some of the
less-pleasant biology studies – like dissecting various animal specimens.
I guess that’s not exactly birthday-fun interesting, but we
needed to do that today or tomorrow; since we’ll have Dawn and Jillian hanging
out with us on Wednesday before we head home.
That stop didn’t take all that long, and then we moved on to the Mall in
time for a little fun shopping before stopping for lunch in the food
court. With the warmer weather, Michael,
Ethan, Ehlana, and I all needed to start working on new spring wardrobes. Most teens don’t think about it much, but
toddlers grow out of clothes just as quickly as we do; and the four of us all
have the same problem with not being able to wear any of our spring clothes
from last year. We didn’t have a major
clothes-shopping spree in the plans, but we did all need some basics; and we
took care of maybe a bit less than half of that today – including a trio of
really nice dresses for Mom, Ehlana, and me that we wore to dinner tonight.
Michael and Ethan weren’t bored the entire time we were at
the Mall, and while they went off together to check out the video game,
electronics, and toy stores for a while; they also did some ‘guy’ clothes
shopping too. Michael didn’t try to get
any dress clothes for tonight, since he buys most of them at Ayres – like most
of the other guys in town do – but he did pick up some spring-weight pants, a
pair of jeans, and a couple of shirts.
Our last shopping stop of the day was to pick up one or more pairs of
shoes for each of us; and then we needed to get over to the hotel and checked
in – at least for two out of three of our rooms. Michael and I had rooms next to each other
and across the hall from Mom and Dad’s room so that we were close together; so
it didn’t take long to haul our luggage and the shopping bags of clothes we
were going to use right away up to our rooms.
We were at the hotel in time for Mom to enjoy some
self-pampering while getting ready for her birthday dinner and evening
entertainment, and we set her free to do that; but Michael and I took Ethan and
Ehlana on a tour of the hotel and nearby area around it before returning to our
rooms to get ready to go out for dinner too.
Michael took care of getting Ethan ready; though we took turns watching
both kids while we each grabbed a shower; and then Ehlana and I played dress-up
and did our hair while Michael and Ethan finished getting ready in their room. Dad checked in on us when he got back from
the courthouse, but then we left him and Mom alone while he freshened up; and
they met us in the lobby when they were finally ready to walk over to the
Bistro with us.
Celebrating Mom’s birthday was the most important part of
the evening, but I really loved getting to spend a couple of hours with the
Malloys tonight. They met us at the
Bistro, and we were at a table that was big enough to seat all of us with just
a bit of crowding to make room for nine.
Angela and Terry are really great, and I wish that we could see them
more often, but we’re all busy; and it’s as tough for them to get away for a
visit to Witch Falls as it is for us to free up a weekend to come and see them
– especially when we have that problem with making trips to Woodvale or Granite
Park to see our family. Dad gets to see
them once or twice each time he’s in the city, and we keep in touch by phone
and email all of the time; but we still had a lot of catching up to do since
the last time we were able to be together.
Seeing Valerie change so much was fun, and now that she’s closing in on
being a year and a half old; she’s old enough to play a bit with Ethan and
Ehlana – and keep the rest of us entertained with her antics.
A fairly upscale restaurant isn’t maybe the best place to
take three toddlers for dinner, but even while playing ‘normal’ kids, Ethan and
Ehlana weren’t a problem; and Valerie mostly followed their lead except when it
came to making quite a mess while eating.
Since Michael and I were tentatively in charge of the three younger kids
during dinner, it was up to me to keep that mess to a minimum, but that would
have been easier to do if I’d been able to use a Magi-powered shield. My new dress wasn’t too much the worse for
wear by the time we’d finished dessert and were getting ready to head back to the
hotel; but I’m also glad that we weren’t going out anywhere else afterward and
I could get changed and do a bit of spot-cleaning.
Dad, Angela, and Terry were taking Mom out for drinks and a
bit of dancing and socializing after dinner, so Michael and I had Valerie with
us at the hotel while they were out. That
wasn’t really much work for us because she bounced around on the bed in my room
for a while and then promptly fell asleep about twenty minutes into the movie
we put on for her to watch with Ethan and Ehlana while all three of them stretched
out on the bed and Michael and I sat on the little love seat and spent that
time working on a couple of our holiday assignments on our computers.
While having some adults-only time was fun for Mom and Dad,
he also couldn’t stay out late either – and neither could Angela and Terry; so
they were back at the hotel by a bit after eleven. Angela and Terry only stayed long enough to
say goodnight to us and pick up their sleeping daughter, and Mom and Dad did a
bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana before going on to their
room. Dad had a bit of homework to do
too, but I seriously doubt that he’s started it yet – and may need to give
himself an early wake-up call so he can do that before we meet and go out for
breakfast in the morning at his favorite little diner.
Let’s not go into why he isn’t doing the work now. I don’t want to be thinking about things like
that – especially when my boyfriend is in the hotel room right next door!
Michael and Ethan didn’t stay too much longer after Mom and
Dad left before going to their room for the night; and Ehlana and I cuddled in
bed together as soon as we were on our own and I’d changed into a night dress
that would likely be keeping Michael awake if he’d seen me in it earlier. I snuggled with Ehlana and we had some girl
chat time until she fell asleep; and then I fired up my computer and took care
of a few family business issues along with my usual bedtime computer checks
before getting to this update.
Rowen wasn’t online, but she did send me an email before
going to bed tonight with her news from home report; and it sounds as though
she and Tim had fun. Kyle apparently has
gotten a football scrimmage together for the afternoons this week – at least on
the days that the weather cooperates – and Tim was happy to be allowed to join
in for the game today after spending the morning helping out around the shop
with his father, uncle, and cousins.
Carolyn isn’t interested in a career as a mechanic, but her parents want
her to at least understand the basics about everything they do at Landry’s;
since they plan on passing the business off to their kids some day. I don’t know if Carolyn wants that for
herself yet or not, but she’s a teenage girl and gets paid for the work; so that’s
good enough for her right now.
Of course, there’s also the fact that she’s so competitive
and would never concede that there are jobs her big brother can do that girls
can’t; but then nearly every girl I know has at least a bit of that in them –
Ehlana and me included. That’s probably
easier for us, knowing that we actually could lift a combine if we wanted to –
not to mention the rest of our special abilities; but you know what I mean.
I had some email waiting in my inbox from Woodvale too, and
Violet and Dillon had a good weekend with her family. They’re spending some time with some of
Violet’s friends today and tomorrow; though they’re also going out to a private
dinner with both sets of her grandparents too tomorrow night so that they can
have some time together without the rest of the family around. Dawn and Jillian are spending today and
tomorrow with their friends, and doing a sleepover at Jillian’s house tonight,
since they’ll be away for the last half of the holiday; and it sounds as though
they’re having lots of fun doing that.
We’ve got some fun planned for tomorrow too, including more
shopping in the morning, an afternoon visit to SportsFusion; and then dinner
and a movie night out with Dad after he’s finished work for the day. Michael, Ethan, Ehlana, and I want to get up
early for Tai Chi in the morning too before meeting Mom and Dad for breakfast,
so I should wrap this up and join Ehlana in slumber land. Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
