It’s been a hot, beautiful day for
baseball, and while my hopes for a quiet, Michael and me play time evening didn’t
exactly work out; we did get to have some alone time eventually – which is why
this report is coming to you very late considering I’ll need to be up early to
help out with getting a gang of kids ready for church in just a few hours.
Let’s start with the baseball, though; and
we’ll cover the night-time adventures after that.
Tai Chi, breakfast, and the morning house
and yard chores were all uneventful – though the work was easier since I had my
biggest chores done already and mostly helped Mom and Dad with theirs. Rowen picked me up on the way to the park for
our game; and it ended up being the least-exciting match of the day. We were playing our second game of the season
against the Blizzard, and while our first match was close, they had a couple of
their best players away today; and we won the game fairly easily – fourteen to
five. I guess there is something to be
said for having parents that own stores or farms – you’re usually home on
weekends while they’re working; so you don’t miss many baseball games. I know that score is really lop-sided, but
trust me – we were holding back by the third inning.
Michael and Tim’s game was better from a
baseball perspective, but not so hot for them or the Lightning because the
Storm won their game by a score of twelve to ten. The lead switched back and forth four times,
but the Storm didn’t need to bat in the bottom of the last inning after getting
a three-run homer in a five-run fifth inning rally and then keeping the
Lightning to just one run after that.
Rowen and I cheered our best with some early help from Ehlana and Naomi
before Mom took them home to get out of the hot sun after watching our game
too, but considering how hot it was this afternoon; I wasn’t surprised that all
of the guys were running out of steam by the end of the game.
Michael, Rowen, and Tim all came home for
dinner with me, and we started out the rest of our day with a long swim while
waiting for the food to be ready. We had
seven kids with us by then because we’d been recruited for babysitting duties
for the evening, and in addition to Naomi and Aiden; we also had Jessica, Ryan,
and Sophia Bassett with us for dinner.
Patrick had dinner with the Faulkners, but we have him, Scott, and
Lindsay here overnight too – and they met up with us at the park while we were
there for Mom and Dad’s game. Keeping up
with seven kids while swimming and then getting them fed was fairly tiring
after an all-afternoon baseball double-header, but we had fun too; and the kids
loved hanging out with us and having a picnic by the river and on the dock.
Our evening baseball entertainment had our
Beagles up against the Beer Buddies. I’d
like to report that our cheerleading was a contributing factor to ‘our’ second
win of the day, but the Beer Buddies were missing key players too; it was hot;
and the fourteen to six results didn’t have anything to do with our admittedly
wilted cheer squad. We weren’t even
there for nearly two innings when the kids – and Tim and Michael – wanted to go
swimming to cool off again instead.
Rowen and I would have stayed at the game,
but we couldn’t just leave the boys to keep up with five toddlers –
particularly when they had to deal with Ryan, Patrick, and Scott too.
By the way, if you’re wonder how hot it was
today, and don’t want to just look it up – it was hot enough that nearly every
player on our Beagles team came home with us and went for a swim.
Then they all went to get ready to go out
to the pub while Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were kept busy with our gang of ten
kids. We stayed in the river and played
for more than a half-hour after the parents had moved on; and only got out when
Mom and Dad left for the pub. We stayed
outside and played for another hour; moved indoors and got the younger kids
ready for bed; and then we – the girls – let the boys play video games in the
lounge while we mostly just hung out, talked, and listened to some music.
We started losing toddlers not long after
that as they went into sleep mode, and Rowen and I took care of most of the
transportation to get them from the third floor down to Ethan and Ehlana’s
rooms. The babysitting job was only
half-done by the time that Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends were all in bed;
and it took until after midnight before we finally got Patrick and Scott to at
least go to their guest room for the night and switch to portable gaming. Mom and Dad didn’t get home until a bit after
one, but we didn’t get any alone time before then because we had random kid
issues that kept one or more of us busy pretty much that entire time.
So how did Michael and I get that alone
time, you ask? That’s easy – he wandered
up to the lounge after Mom and Dad went to bed and Rowen just happened to end
up picking that exact same time to go and say goodnight to Tim in his room on
the second floor – which was conveniently located next to the back stairs. No, we didn’t avoid parental detection,
though I’m sure that Tim thinks that we did; but Mom was not worried about any
of us getting too adventurous with a house full of kids and parents around.
That does not mean that Michael and I didn’t
have fun because we did – and some of that entertainment was fairly hot and
clothing-optional. Our comparatively
limited play time for two could be affecting my perception of the hot scale,
but all that really matters is that we did get to spend that time together and
had a bit of the kind of fun that we’d both like to have a bit more of than we
have lately. Michael went back to his
room after about an hour and a bit – after we decided that it would be a bad
idea to just cuddle together and probably fall asleep on the sofa
together. I was in bed and doing my
late-night computing for a while by the time Rowen joined me again and snuggled
with Mandy while I worked and we chatted.
I won’t go into the details of that chat,
but she and Tim had fun too – and she hadn’t been all that interested in
trading him for Mandy as a cuddle buddy for the rest of the night.
No offense, Mandy – Rowen does love you
too; just not the same way. ;^)
Thanks to the sudden batch of memories from
the movie ‘The Truth About Cats And Dogs’ revolving around the difference
between loving your pet and ‘loving’ your pet; I really wish that I hadn’t gone
there. Let’s move on and wrap this up so
I can get started on my nap.
Rowen and I have had a nice little chat
while I was getting some family business work out of the way, but there isn’t
any news to report from email or elsewhere.
I haven’t mentioned Violet and Dillon, but that’s mostly because I haven’t
seen them much today. They’d mostly been
with his family or out with their friends; and Violet conveniently chose a
sleepover at his house over being stuck here on Sunday morning and vying for
bathroom time with fourteen kids and teens.
I wonder if I’ll be doing those kinds of
sleepovers with Michael after our first year of college? Then again, I am my Aunt Leanne’s niece; so I’ll
just go ahead and take the under on that bet.
That thought does have me tempted to sneak
downstairs and cuddle with Michael for the rest of the night even if I might
get in trouble, but I will resist; settle for a few happy dreams instead; and
call it a night now. Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
