Happy 19th Birthday,
Stephanie! Happy 3rd
Birthday, Sophia!
We’ve had another gorgeous weather day; and
that helped to make everything we did today just a bit better and more fun –
whether that was our first day back in school after our trip; Sophia’s party;
or Michael and Tim’s baseball practice.
A warmer morning for Tai Chi was good too;
though the rest of our morning before I left for school was fairly normal. Everyone in our class got special attention
at school today as we were asked about the highlights of our trip and those
stories started getting around to the other kids and teens. The two break-up stories were still news too;
though that information had hit the grapevine over the weekend – or earlier via
email from Washington. Mother’s Day was
on the radar too; particularly with the younger kids who started crafts today
that they’ll have ready to give to their mothers on Sunday. Finally, while our trip is over, the Senior
class trip is coming up next week; so that’s news too. I’m not sure whether everyone in the class is
all that excited about the trip because they picked going to Ohio for the week
instead of somewhere more exotic; but the pro football hall of fame is there;
and Kyle talked his friends into that for their big, graduation year adventure.
Then again, he sold it to most of the other
Grade Twelve teens by reminding them that a day or two at Cedar Point would be
an option, and that is one of the coolest amusement parks in the country; so
I’m not totally surprised that he won that vote. He probably had nearly half the votes in the
bag just from giving his school a football championship anyway.
That gives me a nice little segue into
Michael and Tim’s return to weight training and lunchtime football; since Tim
is determined to be a major contributor to the Landry football legacy here in
Witch Falls. He may be avidly counting
down the days to summer holidays like a lot of our school mates are doing now;
but the days and weeks left until football training camp opens the last week of
August is even more important to him.
I’m fairly sure that he’s even thinking about baseball season as just
another weekly workout that’ll help him get stronger and faster for football. Michael isn’t as fanatical about it as Tim
is; but he’s also going to be there every step of the way for his best friend,
and every time I watch them play their scrimmage games; it’s obvious that
they’re getting better every week.
Since we did have such nice weather, Rowen,
Sally, Gretchen, and I played football with the boys today at lunchtime, and
had quite a bit of fun – particularly when we won. I’ll give Tim credit for that because he
picked all four of us for his team despite getting razzed by some of the other
guys – though he did still pick Michael first.
I actually know that was only because Michael would have been snapped up
with the second pick ahead of anyone else; but it’s still funny that some of
the guys just can’t concede that some of us girls are better at sports than
they are – and won’t pick us for football unless they’re forced to make up
mixed teams. Anyway, the point here is
that Tim understood two facts about having the four of us on his team – that
Rowen and I can really play; and that Sally and Gretchen didn’t need to make
many plays at all when their best contribution to our team was their talent for
distracting the better players on the other team.
Sally was only distracting her boyfriend,
but Gretchen didn’t have a problem with getting attention from a few of the
guys. She wasn’t exactly flirting with
anyone – at least not for real – but she was still very successful at diverting
attention at critical moments of some of our plays. I was just glad that we were all doing
something together now that we’re home again; and I hope we do more of that
from now on.
We’re doing follow-up lessons this week in
some of our classes to build on our experiences from last week; but we’ll be
starting a last, mini-module for these last few weeks before we get into final
exam preparations. When you look at this
last six weeks of school that way, with three weeks of lessons, one of
studying, one for exams, and the last play week; it feels like we’re
practically done already!
Okay, not quite yet; but we are getting
there fast!
We had a good day at school, and then
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had fun studying at my house; though we had to rush
that a bit so that Michael and I could take Ethan and Ehlana with us over to
Sophia’s house for her party. One of my
favorite parts of this party was that Michael’s parents had the day off and
could be there for it; which they hadn’t been able to do for Jessica’s
party. Sophia had more Bassett aunts and
uncles there too; though most of them were only there for the dinner – and not
for the pre and post-dinner games and entertainment.
While Sophia had a slightly different mix
of friends at her party than Ethan and Ehlana would; she still had Naomi and
Aiden there along with some of their other KidZone friends. Since most of those kids will be classmates
of Ethan’s and Ehlana’s; I liked getting to spend time with them – particularly
the kids I don’t know very well yet.
That was all a whirlwind blast of work and
fun for Michael and me because he needed to head over to the school for his
baseball practice at seven o’clock. We
managed to be there for the early games; helped to get all of the kids fed; and
caught the cake and gift round before Rowen and Tim stopped in to collect us on
their way to the school from her house.
While Rowen and I were only spectators, when the weather cooperates; the
first week of baseball practices definitely makes it feel like spring around
here. I don’t know if we’ll come to
watch every practice for our boys, since that might work out for play time with
Ethan and Ehlana too; but I’m glad that we went to this first one.
While Michael and Tim are the best athletes
in our grade, being in our current baseball division is particularly tough for
the younger boys and girls because of the size difference to the Grade Nine
guys. That was tougher last year when
Michael and Tim were upwards of eight or nine inches shorter than the biggest
guys; but even this year they’re still only about half-way caught up. There’s a good chance that they’ll both move
up the position food chain this year; but it’s still tough for them competing
with guys who have extra reach – particularly with the infield positions. That’s not all bad, since if they were better
than all of the older boys; their team this year probably wouldn’t be very
competitive. It’s too early to say for
sure; but I think they’ll do okay.
That brings me to one more bit of baseball
news for this season – our division is only going to have three teams each for
the boys and girls groups instead of four.
I guess that happens sometimes because more teens opt out of baseball
when nearly every younger kid in the area plays; and this is one of those years
where we didn’t have enough players for four teams – so each of the remaining
three get an extra player or two instead.
Getting to play the other two teams three times each instead of twice
will be nice, and the odds of making the championship game will be two in three
instead of fifty-fifty; but I think I’d rather have more competition. The co-ed division has only had three teams
in the years Mom and I have been here, though, and it works for them; so it
might be okay for us too.
While we missed out on that hour and change
of party time, Michael and I went back to his aunt and uncle’s house to help
out with the tail end of the party while Rowen went home with Tim to hang out
with him for a while. The games were
winding down by then, and parents were stopping in to pick up their kids; so we
mostly played with the remaining kids until Sophia only had my brother and
sister there. We helped with the
clean-up after that; and then Michael and I took Ethan and Ehlana home with us
after a long round of hugs and kisses with his family.
Ethan and Ehlana gave Mom and Dad the party
recap instead of a bedtime story; Michael and I tucked them in for the night;
and then he and I spent a little time playing music in my room – followed by a
minor make-out session in the lounge before he needed to get home. The music time was mostly to get ready for
music class and band practice because we haven’t exactly had much time to
practice lately. Let’s just add that to
the list of things I wish I had more time for; but I don’t expect to get more
music time between now and summer holidays.
We do have the Memorial Day parade to get ready for, though, so we’ll
need to do a bit more practicing for that somehow.
I wouldn’t have traded that alone time with
Michael for anything, but that did mean that I didn’t get around to my Magi
lesson with Mom until after Michael went home; and it was nearly midnight
before I started my studies and computer work.
For the second night in a row, I’ve been working for three hours or so;
and now I’m pretty much at the same state of exhaustion too.
Before I wrap this up, though; let’s cover
the college teen report. Michael,
Rebecca, and their parents talked to Stephanie and Jake this morning to wish
Stephanie a happy birthday; but I haven’t gotten the birthday email report from
her – or talked to her either. That
probably means she’s having a really great night; so we’ll cut her some slack
on that. Then again, they could also
just be busy studying – just as all of my favorite collegians are doing this
week. Final exams are either on the go;
starting later this week; or happening next week at the different colleges, but
whatever stage they're at for winding up the semester; they’re all in full
study mode. I’m sure there’s a lot of
stress going on with that, but here in Witch Falls; their exams are just a way
of counting down to when they’ll be home again.
I’ll still be stuck in school for another month after that; but it’s
still going to be really awesome to have Violet spending most of the summer
with us.
Who knows?
Maybe we’ll have Dillon staying with us too! ;^)
Okay, I don’t need to go there tonight; and
really need to get started on my nap; so, until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
