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!
