Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Cassie's Journal - March 24, 2014



It’s official now, so congratulations again, Aunt Deborah, Uncle Nick, and Leah – you’re going to have a baby!

That news hit the school grapevine in our classroom first when Aunt Deborah stopped in to give Uncle Nick – Mr. Ayres – the news flash after getting the results from Uncle Adam; picking up Leah from KidZone for a little break; and getting some flowers for her and Uncle Nick at Green’s on the way over.  While Mr. Ayres got teased about that, I was definitely teased more for hugging and kissing the teacher, his wife, and daughter.  I was let off from a trip to the Principal’s office with just a verbal warning, but even that still went viral; and it was soon common knowledge that Cassie Proctor actually got in trouble for the first time.

If it was April first tomorrow, I’d be seriously tempted to stay home and see how long it took for everyone to speculate on whether or not I’d been expelled!

That was the big news around my family today, but the big news for the entire town was probably the groundbreaking on the Solar-Wind Farm project.  ‘Groundbreaking’ isn’t really quite fair, since the old Quarry site we’re using for it has already had some fairly extensive preparation for the construction that will be going on there; but the actual dig for the extensive facilities started today.  Blake Sheldon is on the job there now too, and from what Mom told us at our meeting tonight; he’s seriously fired up about the new job and challenges that will take full advantage of his particular skills and expertise.

While it felt more like winter than spring today, the landscaping and exterior finishing for the lab started today too.  Both jobs are going to take most of the spring and summer; but should also be finished well-ahead of opening the lab in September.  In the new section of town, two home construction starts are of particular note because they’re for the young families of two of the primary construction company owners.  Carter Construction has needed to grow a lot to take on all of the work, and so has Byrd Plumbing.  Two of the riverfront properties are theirs, and the new homes are especially important to Ethan and Ehlana because two of their KidZone and church nursery friends, Carolyn Carter and Jennifer Byrd, will be living in those new houses with their families by sometime in August.

Since I’m already covering a lot of the news from our future plans meeting tonight, let’s just stay on that before backing up to do the rest of the daily recap.

I wrote about the most important job offers for some of my favorite college teens last night, but there were – and are – other offers being made to help with everything from the solar-wind farm to retail and construction jobs.  We’ll even have a few teen gardeners helping out with the greenhouse at the lab; though that will be more for getting everything set up and won’t involve all that much actual gardening.  That’ll come as the research kicks into high gear in September.

Witch Falls has the new interior design business opening the week before Easter, and while that has absolutely nothing to do with us directly; I’ve already mentioned that there are lots of people who are excited to have the new service for both new homes and older ones that will be changing hands over the next decade or more.  It’s too cold to be thinking too much about Quarry Lake today, but that’s another business that is expanding this year; and the new features will be ready for the Memorial Day weekend in May.  I’m sure that every kid and teen in town will appreciate the new play opportunities a lot more than the interior design business – unless they’re looking for bedroom upgrades or something!

I haven’t written about the church expansion project in quite a while because I’m not involved in it at all, but the work will be starting after Easter.  Though it isn’t anywhere near the biggest construction project in town, it is going to be one of the more complex because the addition will be married to the existing church; and will need to be done while still accommodating the normal church operations.  Add in jobs like protecting stained glass windows in the sanctuary – not to mention moving all of the windows on one exterior wall – and the project is set to take nearly two years to complete.  When they’re done, though, the church will be large enough to handle the growing population here for at least the next couple of decades.

There was one little point of business today that I hadn’t really been thinking about at all yet; and it directly involved me this time – our Grade Eight class trip to Washington.  Specifically, my protection and safety is something that the Magi Council is concerned about; and they’ve made arrangements to deal with that problem.  I’ll have two Magi chaperones on the trip in addition to Uncle Nick – Tracey Landry and Rachel Jacobs.  Ethan, Ehlana, and I don’t sense any risk right now, but the precaution does make sense; and I’m not complaining about the extra attention in this situation.  Mom and Dad feel better about the trip now too.

Tim hasn’t said anything about his Mom going on the trip yet, so he probably doesn’t know yet; since she wouldn’t be able to tell him the real reason for going along.  Keeping an eye on him will be a bonus for her.

By the way, is it wrong for me to hope that maybe something does happen just so I can see Tracey throw large objects around – like maybe cars or busses?  That would be very cool; and maybe she’d let me help! ;^)

We’ve pretty much covered the future plans meeting news now, so let’s go back to the ‘normal’ stuff from today.  Having Michael over for Tai Chi this morning was definitely normal – and so are our good morning hugs and kisses; though I’d also classify those are really special too.  Having Michael get back to his morning weight training with Tim and the other guys isn’t quite as exciting for me, but the need for guy time is simply a fact of life – just as girls’ nights and sleepovers are important.  Compared to yesterday, getting ready for the day today was a breeze; and I was over at Rowen’s house with fifteen minutes to spare before we actually needed to head over to the school.

The baby news was the most exciting part of our school day for me, but starting new subject modules is always a nice change too – even though I learned all of the material back when I was a toddler.  It was cold enough out that we stayed indoors at lunchtime; though lots of other kids and teens did venture outside anyway despite the cold.  There’s been a bit of rain and even a little snow too; but that just seemed appropriate for the back-at-school occasion to a lot of the students – and even some of the teachers too!  Once we were set free for the day, our after-school study session included a music practice; mostly because Michael and I hadn’t really played our saxophones at all last week and we needed to get ready for music class and band practice tomorrow.

Michael and I had dinner at his house; and that was another couple of hours of normal that I was really glad to get back to – especially the food part of that; which was as amazing as always.  Miranda and Stephanie are sure that having a chef for a husband or boyfriend is great, but dating a child or sibling of a chef works out pretty well too.

We’ll skip over the fact that Jacob and Jake weren’t chefs when they met their favorite girls – I’m sure that the fact that both men are gorgeous had absolutely nothing to do with why Miranda and Stephanie were attracted to them.

[Pause]

Sorry, I’m back now from that little daydream.  Don’t worry, Michael – I love you; but a girl never really gets over her first crush.  I’m sure that every boy can relate – even if they won’t admit it to anyone.

That totally derailed my train of thought, so let’s just move along.  Michael and I had a guitar lesson after cleaning up from dinner, but then I needed to get home for the meeting.  We had the usual gang there, and it took a couple of hours to go through everything; including a family business update that keeps getting better every year.  Considering the amounts of money we’re talking about here, the improvement is noticeable daily if anyone actually wanted to check that often.

Maybe Mom should make up one of those desktop widgets for a family business growth counter or something.  A countdown clock to the coming Ascension of the Light would be awesome too, but that’s information that Ethan, Ehlana, and I don’t know the exact time for; and can’t share most of what we do know yet.

After the meeting, I helped with the clean-up and saying goodbye to everyone; and then I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked into their beds for the night.  They took that time to tell me about how their first day of exams went.  I’ve been there and done that, so I know they aren’t stressed about them; and it was entertaining to hear them joke about how weird it was to go from play days at KidZone to writing their first semester, freshman finals – and back again; since they’ll be at KidZone for their usual Tuesday play day.

After my brother and sister were both in bed for the night, I came up to my room to get started on my bedtime studies and work.  I needed to use a bit of time-phasing again, but I’ll need to watch that; since it really is close to an even trade-off to working later and getting less sleep because I need more sleep to recover from the use of my Magi abilities.  There isn’t anything else to report from my studies or work, and I really do need to get that extra sleep now, so, until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!