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!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Cassie's Journal - May 19, 2014



We’re back to the warm weather, and other than a bit of rain this morning; it’s been a great day to be outdoors.  I was too busy most of the time to enjoy that; but we’ve still managed to have a lot of fun.

The rain didn’t come until after Mom, Michael, Ethan, Ehlana, and I had exercised by the river; and Dad probably made it to the city ahead of the wet too unless it hit there earlier than here.  Rowen, Rebecca, and I did get rained on a bit during the walk to school; but everything had pretty much dried out again by noon so that we could hang around outside at lunchtime and the boys could play football.

While most of our classmates aren’t getting serious about it yet, our teachers started getting us ready for final exams and testing this week.  We also are hitting deadlines over the next two weeks for major projects; though that isn’t an issue for Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me since we’re way ahead on all of that work – or have the work submitted already.  Exams aren’t really an issue for three of us either; but we did start studying for them tonight anyway; and offered an open study group to our classmates for anyone interested in working with us or wanting the tutoring help – though we didn’t put that last part to them quite that way.

There wasn’t really a lot of time for studying tonight, but we still did our homework and got at least a start on our exam preparation before Michael and I needed to get to work helping out at his house until dinnertime.  Jake had spent a lot of the day helping his parents around the house and yard too; and they’re using both of their days off this week to get ready to host Jacob’s family for the holiday weekend.  Today, we worked on cleaning guest bedrooms after Rowen and Tim moved on with plans to do some biking at the park; and we kept going until it was time to have dinner early enough that Michael could still get to his baseball practice after helping out with the all-teen dinner clean-up crew.

Rowen and I didn’t go to watch that practice, and we instead met up at my house to do a Magi lesson with Mom.  I wasn’t the only person thinking that we didn’t get to do that enough anymore; but Mom is going to do some special lessons with Rowen at her grandmother’s request to help her with learning better techniques for some of her strongest talents – like shielding.  My involvement in those lessons will mostly be to help me learn to teach and be a partner when needed for each side of different tests, but that’s always fun for us; and I’m glad we’ll be doing a bit more of that again for a while.  Having Michael and Tim at baseball practice on Monday nights might just give us a regular opportunity to do those lessons for the next few months.

While that was a highlight of the day for us, our next round of entertainment for the evening was a visit to the new Witch Falls Museum.  It doesn’t open until Friday, but they had a wine and cheese open house tonight.  Rowen and I collected Michael and Tim from the school ballpark on our way there; and met up with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana at the museum.  Since we’ve so recently visited the Smithsonian, it’s a bit funny to think of our little display of town and regional history as a museum; but I still loved getting to see all of the displays of artifacts and stories dating back to the sixteen hundreds – and even into the more distant past thanks to some geological and archaeological donations.  Marianne Palmer’s legend obviously had a prominent place in the museum; but nearly all of the local folklore was represented.

From what we were told, about half of the artifacts have just been in storage or on display around the town hall; while everything else was donated.  A large group of volunteers helped with the write-ups that go with all of the displays; and the little souvenir shop will hopefully support most of the expenses for the museum.  We couldn’t buy anything tonight; but I’ll go back this weekend sometime to pick up a few things – like ‘I’m a Witch Falls Witch’ tops for Ehlana and me.  There are ‘Warlock’ and ‘Wizard’ versions for the different tops, sweaters, hats, and everything else they’re going to be selling; but I’ll let Michael and Ethan decide for themselves whether they want to risk their reputations by wearing anything like that – particularly if they’ll match with Ehlana and me.

There actually was wine available for the adults at the open house, but there were other drink and snack options for the kids and teens too; and there was a really good turnout for the event.  It was going on for three hours, but we only stayed until about nine; wanting to give more people a chance to get into the crowded place and get a first look around.  I went home with Michael first so that we could have a music practice while Ethan and Ehlana were doing bath time and getting ready for bed; but I was home again in time to do the bedtime story and tuck them in for the night.

Mom opted for some Jacuzzi time and then going to bed instead of doing a second Magi lesson with me; so I was able to get a slightly earlier than usual start on my bedtime work and studies.  Violet’s been out with Dillon, Jake, Stephanie, and some of their friends tonight, so I only saw her for a few minutes while crossing paths here and there; but she stopped in again tonight for a short chat on her way to bed a couple of hours ago.  I’ve still barely seen Christina or Josiah since they got home on Sunday even though they’re both just down the street from us at each end of the road; but maybe we’ll get to spend some time together before they leave again to spend the holiday weekend with the McEwan clan.

Since I had the early start anyway, I’ve put in extra time on the family business tonight because we’re just going to get busier every day this week; and I’m going to need to keep helping out with holiday weekend work – at Michael’s house again tomorrow; and here on Wednesday and Thursday.  Add in band practice, extra study time to get ready for exams, and two baseball nights; and it’s going to be non-stop action around here this week before we even get to the holiday weekend family and friends fun.

There isn’t much to write about from my email and the usual nightly computer checks; but there were pictures out on the town intranet for the new water slides and playground at Quarry Lake; along with a write-up about the additions to the campground.  We won’t have time to check any of that out this weekend; but I hope we can get there soon to do that; since it is going to be even more fun there this year.  The weather report isn’t looking that great for the weekend right now; but I’m hoping it’ll change as it usually does – or we’ll get the rain in the overnight hours.

That reminds me of one more job to do that I wasn’t thinking about – the annual Memorial Day town clean-up and the flowers and flags planting at the cemetery we’ll be doing on Friday.  Our class will be on the park cleanup crew this year, and while I’m sure that we’ll have fun anyway; it’s also one of the tougher assignments.

I’m getting tired just thinking about all of that, and don’t really have anything else to add to this update; so I’m out of here.  Until next time…

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