Happy April Fool’s Day!
The best joke of the day in Witch Falls
wasn’t actually a joke at all! Uncle
Mark and Aunt Grace announced that she’s pregnant, and quite a few people
believed that it was a practical joke – including a few members of our extended
family.
As I already mentioned, though, it wasn’t –
so, congratulations Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark – you’re going to have a baby!
While that wasn’t exactly news for some of
us today, it was the top story for the Proctor and Everett families; and I’m
sure that Uncle Mark’s parents, brother, sister, and their spouses and kids are
all very excited for him – and Aunt Grace.
I know that everyone in our family is thrilled; and we’ll likely have some
extra visitors dropping by over the next few weeks – even though there won’t be
much going on that’s baby-related right now beyond the less-than-fun things
like morning sickness.
I didn’t even hear about the official
pregnancy announcement until after lunch when Uncle Nick – Mr. Ayres – told me;
and by then, most of the pranks and jokes around school had been played
already. The themed fun actually started at home this morning; and Ethan and
Ehlana were the instigators. They were
very cute, and there were levels to their humor that most people who saw them
today wouldn’t have realized was intentional; so their little joke kept on
giving pretty much all day.
Their first attempt at April Fool’s Day
practical jokes was to try a twin switch.
Ethan drew the line at wearing anything too ‘girly’ – like one of Ehlana’s
dresses – but they tried their best in every other way to trade places. They’d switched rooms ahead of their Tai Chi
wake-up call; tried wearing hats to disguise their hair; and eventually even
tried to hang out with each other’s friends while at KidZone. The opposite gender problem kept their prank
from fooling anyone except with the most cursory of glances; but then they knew
that and played along – especially whenever someone pretended to be fooled by
the switch.
Ehlana advised me that in at least one
case, the joke was on Ethan because Naomi apparently was quite happy to take
the opportunity to hug her ‘best friend’ a lot while they were at the daycare
together and he was pretending to be Ehlana.
Then again, my brother is rather brilliant; so I doubt that he minded
those hugs at all.
While Ethan and Ehlana entertained us with
their prank this morning, I didn’t really have any first-hand experience with
the jokes going on around school – though we heard about most of them
eventually. Michael and Tim advised us
that there were no pranks pulled during their weight training because nobody
would ever risk getting Kyle mad at them – and he was a bear about safety when
it came to lifting weights. That didn’t
keep some of the guys from post-workout, locker room pranks, though, and while
Tim didn’t admit to anything; his grin while telling Rowen and me about those
practical jokes suggested that he had a hand in one or more of them.
Tim and Michael also didn’t mention who was
on the receiving end of those pranks, but I was able to work that out for
myself in some cases – particularly with the perfume-for-cologne switch. The pranks and jokes going on around the rest
of the school were fairly tame and mostly amusing; though there were a few that
backfired and got some boys in trouble – with their friends; not any
teachers. While, as I mentioned, there
weren’t any pranks directed at me, there were a few in our classroom, and
again; Tim was suspiciously grinning while not admitting anything. One thing that might have been very different
this year, though, is that he may have needed a certain computer-savvy
accomplice for one of the pranks; and that would definitely be something that
person has never done before. I’m not
quite sure whether I should be proud or a little bit scared. Let’s just go with both on that and move
along.
Mother Nature wasn’t getting in on the
pranks, but it was cooler today; and we’ve had more rain move into the area
again. Rain showers aren’t exactly a
shock for April; but starting the month with several days of rain isn’t
particularly exciting to me. At least
that’ll be happening on days when I’ll be working at home or the Inn anyway;
but spring is way more fun when we have warm and sunny instead of cool and wet.
We didn’t start getting the rain until
after dinner today, so going outside at lunchtime was an option even though it
was a bit on the cool side. Tim wanted
to play football, but he did at least let us eat in the cafeteria before we
went out. While he and Michael tossed a
football around with some of the other guys, Rowen and I wandered around the
school yard for part of the time instead of just sitting on the bleachers. As usual, we ended up helping some younger
girls with their skipping; played with some of the younger kids at the
playground; and had a couple of chats with friends – including a short visit
with Rebecca and Jenny when we crossed paths.
By comparison, our actual class work wasn’t
very exciting, and even band practice seemed a bit bland today. There weren’t any practical jokes going on at
band practice either; though Michael, Rowen, and I heard about more of the
jokes from the older teens then. Tim had
stayed around the school and played more football while waiting for us, and
then we went over to the computer store to study until Michael and I needed to
be at my house for dinner. That was an
entertaining hour too as we exchanged stories from school, work, and
KidZone. Michael and I took care of the
clean-up because we hadn’t made it home in time to help with making dinner; and
then we moved on to our usual Tuesday evening fun.
Mom did a Magi lesson with Michael and me
while Dad worked and the twins studied.
Michael and I played with Ethan and Ehlana for an hour or so after that;
we did the bedtime story and snack with them; and then we had a bit of alone
time in the lounge after tucking them in for the night before Michael needed to
head home for the night. I can’t rank
the Michael and me time anywhere near as hot as our play time on Saturday night
was, but we did have fun; and I’m a happy camper tonight as I write this and
wind down.
I haven’t had all that much time to work on
my studies and family business jobs since Michael left, so I’ve needed to use a
bit of Magi power to get everything done without staying up late. That part of the new plan isn’t working out
so well; and I may need to give up on the pre-midnight bedtime if I can’t get
my work done without regular time-phases.
I’ve written about the why for that before, and that problem remains as
a bigger deal while I’m still in this growth stage. While some girls my age want to look older
and more mature, I don’t care about things like that; and I definitely don’t
want to actually be physically older than my age. While I’m thinking about that, though, I’m
going to check back on my memories in about seventeen years and check to see if
the same girls that want to be older now will be the same women that don’t want
to turn thirty – like Grandma Eleanor.
There isn’t anything to write about from my
studying and work tonight, and the only emails of interest tonight were all
related to Aunt Grace’s pregnancy news.
The girls in our family are all very excited about that, and Jaimie and
Kaitlyn are particularly thrilled that they’re going to have a new cousin. Ethan, Ehlana, and I are happy about that
too; though they’re bound to be closer to their new cousins just because they’ll
all grow up together. That’ll be
different for me – more like it is now for Violet and the younger kids in our
family. I do sense a lot of babysitting
in my near future; but that’s something I’m happy to deal with when it also
means that I get to be part of such an awesome family.
That’s all I have for tonight, and the Magi
lesson and time-phasing has me tired out; so I’d better wrap this up and head
off to sleep so I’ll be ready for a couple of work days.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
