Happy 18th Birthday, Alicia!
Our babysitter is at her new college today,
and I didn’t talk to her at all; but I hope she’s had a good day.
We definitely have while on our shopping
trip!
There wasn’t time for Tai Chi this morning,
and Michael was at the Inn anyway to help out with the set up for the breakfast
buffet. Mom and I were up early with the
twins to see Dad off to the city; we followed that up with our usual nap
together; and then we got ready to go over to the Inn for seven. Nearly every shopper came for breakfast too,
and Miranda and Jacob had a full house and then some in the dining room with
the addition of some family members joining in for the meal even though they
weren’t going to the city with us. I had
breakfast with Michael, Rowen, Tim, Sally, and Joshua while Mom and Aunt Leanne
took care of Ethan and Ehlana and had breakfast with Uncle Adam and Zack.
While Rowen, Sally, and I were happy to
talk shopping while we ate, Tim had the boys in football mode. He didn’t exactly complain about missing a
football training day to go shopping with us; but he did promise Michael that
their workout tomorrow would be tougher – even a double practice if he could
keep the other guys interested long enough.
You’d think he was going to be team captain this year instead of a
freshman hopeful. I don’t really want to
get into a big football discussion when shopping was the name of the game
today, but that actually is one thing that’s very different from last year.
Kyle was the driving force behind the
football team’s all-summer training; and he basically bullied the other guys
into working out with him. That isn’t
happening with any of the seniors this season; so Tim is really the only guy
trying to get the guys interested in extra training – and that’s mostly with
the Grande Nine and Ten hopefuls; a few guys who are only going into Grade
Eight; and a couple of guys in Grade Eleven.
I’ll guess that lack of interest by the seniors is a combination of
resting on their championship laurels and the unspoken belief that they won’t
have a chance this season without Kyle.
That’s really too bad that they feel that way, but then again if you
look at the stats from last season; Kyle did have a big enough impact that not
having his per-game points should mean the difference between winning and
losing – if they don’t have other players pick up the slack this year.
We really should move along, though, and
get to the real fun – the shopping! Mom
and Aunt Leanne coordinated the departure of our convoy of shoppers in groups
of three and four vehicles. Michael and
I were with his Mother, Aunt Sylvia, Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia. I’ll skip over the rest of the travel
arrangements, but if you’re really that bored to want to know those details;
feel free to check out the final shopping trip list – it’s here somewhere in
the archives. On the trip to the city, I
was in the back seat with Jessica and Sophia while Michael kept Ryan
entertained in the middle seats – so that Ryan didn’t have to sit with his
sisters. I’d say that was a guy thing,
but the girls weren’t all that interested in sitting with Ryan either. Michael and I wouldn’t have had any cuddle
time even if we had sat together, so it wasn’t a big deal; and I had fun with
Jessica and Sophia.
Once we got to the mall, there was a bit of
a delay before we got started on our shopping adventure while Mom and Aunt
Leanne made sure that all kids were accounted for and we met up with our
different shopping groups. Michael and I
were only paired with Rowen and Tim for the day; though we spent lots of time
with Mom, Aunt Leanne, and their bigger group too. We also met up with Dawn, Jillian, and their
mothers; though while they shopped with ‘our’ group too, I only ended up
getting spend a couple of hours with them – at lunch; and for an hour when
Rowen and I did some girls-only shopping.
There is one bad thing about back-to-school
shopping, but the inevitable, impending end to our summer holiday didn’t really
affect us today. One of the shopping
highlights from today for Rowen and me was getting to play dress-up with our
boyfriends. There might eventually be
hope for Tim, but his sense of fashion right now is fairly awful. There’s no doubt that his Mommy has picked
out his clothes for him – or at least anything that looks good on him; and she
was fairly amused today anytime she was nearby and watching Rowen and I trying
to keep him from back-to-school fashion disaster. Michael has a different problem when it comes
to shopping for clothes – peer pressure from Tim. That was a much easier problem to deal with –
I just had Rowen distract Tim whenever necessary so that Michael could just
pick out what he wanted without getting razzed by his best friend for being so
boring. Since Rowen and Tim both had fun
during those distractions; that worked out for all of us.
The blush of the day award has to go to
Rowen. That happened right before we
went to do that girls-only shopping with Dawn, Jillian, and a few other
girls. We went with the usual excuse of
needing to shop for underwear, and instead of just agreeing to go and do their
own thing while we were busy; Tim instead offered to help Rowen out with
picking out that part of her wardrobe too.
He definitely isn’t shy; but might want to think about making public
offers like that one – particularly when there are friends of your mother near
enough to hear the offer.
Actually, Patricia and Tracey might laugh
about it; but I doubt that Owen would find it funny at all.
I can’t cover everything that happened
today, so let’s just do a quick overview.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I started out our shopping with the bigger
group so that Rowen and I could talk with Dawn and Jillian for a few minutes,
but then we mostly did our own thing for an hour or so. We met up again after that and shopped
together until our lunch break. The
girl-time shopping was after lunch, and also allowed Rowen and I to take care
of some birthday gift shopping for our boyfriends too; and then Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I took Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden with us for the last hour and
a half at the Mall so that Mom and Aunt Leanne could have some shopping fun
with their own friends. We went on to
Wal-Mart after that – and after saying goodbye to Aunt Melissa, Lily, Dawn, and
Jillian; since they didn’t need to go along with us for the supply shopping
part of our adventure.
We had a bunch of younger kids to keep up
with while we were at Wal-Mart, and Rowen and I took the girls with us while
Michael and Tim kept the boys entertained in the electronics, sporting goods,
and toy departments. Rowen and I did a
bit more gift shopping while we were there too; since we probably won’t be back
to Crystal Springs for at least a couple of months. While there’d been some talk about having
dinner in the city with Dad, he was too busy; and we decided to just get fast
food and head back home in time to catch the tail-end of the sales going on at
the stores back home.
Even with so many shoppers in the city
today, Abby assured us that she still had a great sales day – and nearly every
woman and girl in town stopped in to check out the bargains that were as good
as anything she’ll have for the holiday weekend without the extra crowds to
deal with from visiting family and end-of-summer vacationers. I only bought one dress that I thought would
be perfect for the Sunday service in the park for the holiday weekend; and then
I was ready to go home. I know, that’s
shocking; but I guess all of the late nights have caught up with me again.
Getting home took a while, since Michael
and I helped his Aunt Sylvia with getting the kids and their purchases into
their house; moved on to his place; we had a chat with Miranda, Jacob, Jake,
Stephanie, and Rebecca; and then I went home for the night in time to help Mom
with the work there. We unloaded the
minivan; put our things away; did the bedtime routine with Ethan and Ehlana;
and then it was Jacuzzi time for both of us once the twins were tucked in. I multi-tasked most of my bedtime computing
while in the tub; had a long computer chat with Rowen after getting into bed
with Mandy; and now I’m ready for some quality down time. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow – though
maybe not shopping day in the city kind of fun.
Rowen and I will be doing more cheerleading
training while the boys are busy with football; I’m going to help Michael with
his weekly yard work after that; and he and I have our teen praise team
practice after dinner. If we get the
yard work done early enough, there might be time for some biking in the
afternoon; but we’ll see how that goes – or whether I’ll need to watch Ethan
and Ehlana instead.
Before I wrap this up, though; I wanted to
make a few comments about shopping news that I wasn’t directly involved in; but
heard about from Rebecca and others.
Rebecca did most of her shopping with Jenny and some other friends, and
it sounds as though there were more than a few risqué fashion decisions being
made today – at least when it comes to fashion in our conservative little
town. From what Rebecca told us, the
guys may find that very interesting, and while I’m all for making personal
choices; I’ll never be interested in too-revealing clothing. It’s one thing to wear a swimsuit and not be
embarrassed to do that while going swimming; but I wouldn’t wear one all day
around school – just as I won’t wear clothes that are practically that
revealing.
There were also some flirting stories; a
teen drama or three that mostly involve impending break-ups as part of some
back-to-school plans; and one minor fight between two of Rebecca and Jenny’s
classmates that was over a boy the two girls were both interested in. I’ll skip all of the details for those news
flashes too; and only mention it to note that the teen drama in Witch Falls is
alive and well – even though there isn’t much of that with the Grade Nine class
right now.
Maybe we’re all just too focused on
surviving the first weeks as high school freshmen, though as I’ve mentioned
already; I’m quite sure that Rowen and I will be in for some teen drama of our
own by early next week. That isn’t
something I’m getting through using my Magi Sight, and maybe that won’t happen;
but the odds are against that – and we did hear about the other girls who are
planning on trying out for the cheerleading squad next week. We know this because there just might be some
sucking up going on with Jenny and the other cheerleaders who plan on returning
to the squad this year.
Did I write that last part out loud? Okay, maybe I shouldn’t report on that
either; but that kind of thing does happen – even at our little school. I don’t want to elaborate, though, and do
want to head off to sleep now; so let’s just call it a night.
Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
