I was back to full-power again this morning
after a good night of rest, but before I get to the daily report; let’s do a
travel update for Grandma and Grandpa that I’m overdue for writing about here.
They’ll be home again a week from today,
and are on the last leg of their trip in Malaysia now before starting to make
their way back home this weekend. You
can read about their trip details in their own travel journals, but I will note
that they had a really productive two weeks in South Korea; and not quite so
much success in Malaysia so far. There
is so much that we hope to do in Asia, but as with everywhere these days; our
biggest problems with both our businesses and charities are
government-related. It’s been way too
nice a day to get into that kind of rant tonight, though; so I’m not going to
go there. It’ll be nice to have Grandma
and Grandpa home in time for the holiday weekend; and they’ll be staying home
until after Zack’s first birthday – and the fall festival.
While my grandparents are working and
playing in Malaysia, we’ve had a busy but mostly uneventful day here at
home. For me, busy started with Tai Chi
by the river; I helped Mom with breakfast for four after Michael went home to have
breakfast there before going on to the park for football; and then Rowen came
over for our cheerleading training while the boys were busy. We did that in the exercise room after
helping Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana ready to go and seeing them off to
the lab for the day. I might not have
chosen to try out for cheerleading on my own, but I have to say that Rowen and
I are having a lot of fun – and I’ll modestly say that we’re pretty good
too. Okay, we do have some advantages
while training in secret – like being able to talk telepathically, but that
only helps us now; and we will have to play normal teens during tryouts.
If you’re currently imagining what
Magi-powered cheerleaders could do, that’s okay; because Rowen and I have had
some play time experimenting with that.
Too bad we can’t do things like that in public; since the aerials would
be very cool to watch! ;^)
We didn’t do too much of that, and mostly
concentrated on learning the routines from last year and working on the new
routines we know we’ll need as part of the tryouts. It’s down to days now before tryouts start
next Monday; but I’m sure that we’ll be ready.
Rowen feels pretty good about it right now too; and her biggest worry is
about what we’d do if we make the cheerleading squad and Michael and Tim don’t
get on the team this season. That would
totally suck, and so would having any other combination of one, two, or three
of us make the squad or team; but I’m not going to worry about that at
all. That isn’t due to any Sight
foreknowledge or anything – I just think that Rowen and I are good enough, and
Michael and Tim are the best athletes in our Grade, so if any Niners are going
to make the team this season; they’ll be on that list. That isn’t a given because the coaches and
Principal Jacobs are very serious about player safety; and there have been
seasons when no freshman are allowed to play.
No, I don’t think that’ll happen this year;
but we’ll see how it goes.
While Rowen and I had fun with our little
workout, and had some bonus play time when we went for a cool-down swim with
Michael and Tim after they were finished their training; it was time to get to
work after that for all of us. Rowen and
Tim left to get on to their own chores, and I helped Michael with his yard
work. We mowed the lawn with two lawn
tractors; helped Miranda and Rebecca with the gardening; and had a subs and
salads lunch once the work was finished by one o’clock.
We were set free after that, and met up
with Rowen and Tim to go biking at the park for the afternoon. That play time started with a construction
site tour, and there’s been a lot going on that we haven’t really kept up with
lately. There’s still some finishing
work going on at the lab, but none of that is visible from outside – except for
the trucks and extra worker vehicles in the parking lots. The new medical center building site is a
hive of activity as the framing work nears completion; and there is a small
batch of houses in the new section of town that will be ready for move-ins next
week. Other housing projects will
continue into the fall; but the big project there will be the second apartment
building that will bookend the roads of the new section of town with the first
apartment building. Construction on that
starts in September, with the same building plan – to have the shell up by winter
so that the construction guys can work indoors until spring.
It was an awesome, hot afternoon for
biking, and though we didn’t have time for a long ride this week; we had a
blast hitting the trails at the park. I
wish that we had more time this summer for going on another big ride or three;
but that isn’t going to happen – especially since we’ll all be busy next week
with football and cheerleading. While I’m
thinking about football, I should have noted that we didn’t do our usual
Tuesday football practice at the Norton farm today. Michael and Tim would have liked to do that,
but missing the Monday chores day at Michael’s house meant that we couldn’t
take the extra time to bike out there and back without working most of the
afternoon; and Lucas was busy anyway.
Our camping night on Thursday is still on, though; and this week, it
will be at Tim’s house – as part of his birthday party.
Anyway, we biked; went for a couple of
swims in the river; and had an ice cream run to the Emporium during the three
hours or so we had available to hang out together. Michael and I needed to be at his house for
dinner by five-thirty – or more specifically, to help out with some of the
work. Dinner was shortly after six
because Jacob and Miranda were also hosting Stephanie’s parents and combining
dinner with a little pre-departure meeting for their favorite collegians. Michael and I weren’t there for that because
we were at our teen praise team practice instead. We’d missed the last one while away on our
amusement park adventure, so we had a bit of catching up to do for the music we’ll
be performing at the service on the holiday weekend.
We’ll put in an extra practice or two on
our own to catch up, but we also weren’t really all that far behind either
because most of the other teens wait until the last week or so to really get
ready for the services – or at least that’s been my observation so far since we
were invited to join. That might be
different during the school year. Our
practice went until nearly eight-thirty tonight, and then we moved on to my
house to help Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana through bath time and
eventually into bed. Mom also did a Magi
lesson with the four of us; we had a chat with Dad while tucking Ethan and
Ehlana in for the night; and then Michael and I came up to the lounge for some
overdue alone time while Mom went to do some work in the office.
As usual, I won’t go into the details and
risk turning my journal into a voyeur’s literary paradise, but Michael and I
had fun while not watching a movie; clothing was optional; and Magi-powered
play might have been involved. Use your
imagination – we did! ;^)
Tomorrow is a work day, so Michael went
home shortly before midnight; I hopped into my Jacuzzi for a long soak after he
left; and started working on my usual nightly computing and some family
business work that I decided not to leave until morning. The only reason I opted for the bath time is
because Mom hopped into her tub too after finishing up her work in the office
when Michael went home; but I also didn’t want to stay up too late tonight –
which is why it’s only coming up on twelve-thirty now as I’m writing this. Using a little time-phasing to do that still
tires me out as much as if I’d stayed up until three or four; but I’ll make up
for that tomorrow night so I’ll still be ready for Tim’s birthday party and
campout on Thursday.
I guess that’s all I have for tonight. It’s hard to believe that we’re now less than
two weeks away from going back to school, but after tomorrow; we’ve got so much
on the go between now and then that I’ll barely have time to even think about
that. Actually, I don’t want to think
about any of that right now at all – or anything else except some happy
dreaming with Michael in a starring role; so, until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
