Cassie's Journal - September 29, 2014

Happy 14^th Birthday, Michael!

Our day started out with Tai Chi by the river and a birthday breakfast at Michael’s house.  That was a great start to his special day, but then we needed to rush around a bit to get ready for the day before meeting up with Rowen for the walk to school.  Michael had some gifts to open too – including one each from my parents and the twins that he opened after Tai Chi; and from his parents and Rebecca while we had breakfast.  Everyone did the best they could for him with that, but since he already has an amazing, billionaire Magi Master girlfriend; there really isn’t anything else that he needs.

Just kidding! ;^)

We had a fairly entertaining day at school, and since Michael wasn’t having a big party; some of our friends had gifts for him too.  There was a little birthday party at lunch, and I had a box of Olde Bakery cupcakes miraculously appear for dessert, and that went over well with our friends; though I should have brought more – Michael is getting to be very popular with everyone at school now that he’s on the football team.  We’ve also had another beautiful day; so a lunchtime football scrimmage was required.

Coach Robinson didn’t take it easy on Michael at football practice; and they barely finished in time for Michael, Tim, and Lucas to get home for dinner.  Rowen and I went to help out there after our cheerleading practice; and Miranda and Jacob put us to work with Rebecca until the other guests began arriving.  While Michael hadn’t wanted to do a big friends party, Jacob and Miranda had invited the Bassett side of his family; so we still had a fairly busy couple of hours of fun and work.

While the dinner, dessert, and the usual birthday action was entertaining; we needed to get back to the real world after dinner.  That meant doing our homework while the adults took care of the cleanup or took younger kids home for the night.  We had Erica and Caleb join us for that; but Michael and I were on our own by a bit after nine.  Rebecca went with Miranda to take Lucas home; Rowen and Tim, and Erica and Caleb, left then too, and though Jacob stayed behind; that wasn’t so that he could supervise us for the half-hour that Miranda and Rebecca were gone.

Michael and I went up to his room for a music practice that included running through our band and music class music; the praise team songs that we’ll be doing next Sunday; and a short guitar practice.  We also had a little it’s-your-birthday make-out session, but while that was fun; it wasn’t too hot for prime time.  I had a later school-night curfew, so it was eleven o’clock when I went home.  I loved spending the extra time with Michael; but that’s also meant a late start to my usual school night work and studies.

That started with a Magi  lesson with Mom that took until midnight – though there was a daily recap chat included in that hour of fun and Magi play time.  I stopped in to kiss Ethan and Ehlana goodnight on my way up to bed after that; but they didn’t wake up for that – they’d had a very busy day of play time at the lab and college studies; so I wasn’t surprised that they’d run out of steam.  I know I have as I write this now!

I got ready for bed after getting up here to my room; cuddled with Mandy; and got to work on my language studies.  That took an hour and a half; followed by an hour of archive reading; and another hour and a half of family business work.  My part-time job seems to be taking more time to keep up with lately, but I didn’t do much of that work on the weekend; so I had some catching up to do – which for me means catching up to the ahead of schedule place where I normally try to keep my work at.

If you’re keeping up with that, you know it’s past four o’clock now.  I’m going to need to use a little Magi power in the morning to make up for the lack of sleep; but I’ll manage to get through another busy Tuesday.  Make that a busier Tuesday than normal; since we have yet another birthday dinner booked – this time for Uncle Nick at his parents’ house.  With everything else I have on the go, that’ll be about the entire extent of my involvement with that; but I’m sure that Aunt Deborah will help to make sure that Uncle Nick has a happy day.

Since I’ll be napping through that, and maybe our praise team practice too if I don’t at least get a little nap time now, though; it’s time to call it a night.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - September 28, 2014

Happy 2^nd Birthday, Valerie!

Weekend party day two began without Tai Chi for the second day in a row; though that was mostly because we – the kids and teens – needed the extra time to get ready for the day and packed.  Kaitlyn, Ehlana, and I took the most time; but I thought we did pretty well for getting through three showers; playing with our hair; and getting appropriately beautiful for a Sunday morning breakfast at a nice hotel restaurant.

The meal was a nice little break; and then we were on the go again – taking Kaitlyn and Jayden home and having a little visit with Uncle Blaine, Aunt Alison, Jaimie, and her friends before getting on the road for Crystal Springs.  We made it to the Malloy’s house by eleven o’clock; and had time for a little visit with them before the rest of their party guests began arriving shortly after noon.  Once again, Michael and I were on kid control, but this time; it was a bit more work to keep up with Valerie and a handful of other toddlers – especially since several of them were full-on into the terrible-twos.

I am so glad that my little brother and sister are Magi Masters and didn’t go through that stage – or if they did, it was prenatally; and would have lasted for a couple of days before they developed past that stage.  I’m just kidding, guys – I know you didn’t go through that; though it would be a funny story if you had.

Speaking of pre-natal; Angela is into her second trimester now; and glad to be mostly finished with the morning sickness and other early-pregnancy annoyances.  Dealing with that, a toddler, and her job has apparently been interesting; but she assured us that she didn’t throw up on anyone in her court room or let her raging hormones get in the way of her verdicts – no matter how tempted she was a few times to do just that.  She is pretty sure that one guy in a divorce case might have caved in on a proposed support arrangement specifically because he was afraid of getting a worse deal from Angela after finding out that she was pregnant from his attorneys.

Oh, and yes, Mom and baby are doing just fine – Mom and I both checked.

This birthday party was definitely toddler-rated for fun, and I’m so glad that Angela and Terry have a pool too – we needed it just to help with keeping clean.  Whether the mess was due to the games or food didn’t really matter; since all of the dirt I picked up was due to toddler-transfer.  I’ll admit that Ethan and Ehlana had a tougher time today because they’d needed to play their own age, and since they aren’t much older than Valerie; that meant intentionally getting messier than they normally would.  Then they had to wait around for Mom, Dad, Michael, or me to clean them up; since doing that on their own would have been noticed by all of the parents and other adults too.

That was one thing that was exactly the same as yesterday – the guests.  The only difference was that instead of having architects and socialites; we were surrounded by lawyers, judges, engineers, and construction workers – along with just a few socialites.  Dad knew a lot of Angela’s co-workers and friends, but while Mom had fun too; the shop talk wasn’t nearly as interesting for her.

There was a social hour before lunch; Terry and Angela had help with everything from the grilling to getting the side dishes ready and tables set up in the back yard by the pool; and Michael and I kept the kids entertained.  Getting them fed was a little scary – particularly the cake and ice cream dessert part of the meal.  Not all of the toddlers could swim yet, but they were all stripped, wiped down, put into swimsuits, and dunked in the pool.  I’m still glad that I dressed up this morning; but I also needed to use a little Magi-powered stain removal on my shirt after getting home tonight to get the chocolate and whatever else out of it before putting it in to the laundry with the rest of my weekend clothes.

After that pool time break; there were toddler games to play in the yard.  Prizes were available; and every kid won at least two or three times – though some of the excuses for those wins needed to be fairly creative.  The party started to wrap up at about the same time that Valerie decided to pass out for a late-afternoon nap.  We needed to hit the road by then, so we packed up; left a goodbye video message for Valerie that Angela recorded for us on her phone; and then we hit the road again.

We got home in time to unload the minivan; put everything away; freshen up; and then head over to the Inn for the late buffet.  We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, and our aunts and uncles – including Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace – and Michael stayed with us for that too.  He had the night off because Monday is a normal day off for the family anyway; so this was his get-out-of-work day instead.  I loved getting to end the weekend with that family and great food time; though the cuddle time with Michael after we went home again was nice too.

Mom and Dad both had work to do after dinner, so Michael and I watched a movie in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana; did the bedtime routine with them after that; and then Michael needed to leave – though a birthday sleepover was tempting.  It’s a good thing that he did go home, though, because I still had a lot of work to get done.  Mom wrapped up her night with a Magi lesson for me while Dad finished his work in the office.  They went to bed after that; and I came up to my room to multi-task some Jacuzzi time with my language and archives studies.  Once I was tucked into bed with Mandy; it was time for the family business work; and the only reason it isn’t five o’clock as I write this is because I used a little time-phasing both while I was in the tub and here in bed.

The physical drain is about the same, though, and I really want to be at full power for Michael’s birthday; so I’m going to wrap this up and get some sleep.

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - September 27, 2014

Happy 9^th Birthday, Jaimie!

My first thought with that is: wow! – I was her age when Mom and I came to Witch Falls.  That seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time!

Jaimie was thrilled that we came to spend the day with her.  Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace were there too; but they drove down after work yesterday and are spending the entire weekend in Granite Park.  We left early this morning so that we could be there by mid-morning and spend the extra time with our family before the party started in the afternoon and we had to share them with the other party guests of all ages – including some of Aunt Alison’s family.  The trip was mostly uneventful, and other than a stop for breakfast at a roadside diner; we didn’t have any delays at all on the roads.

Michael and I were on kid control pretty much from the time we got to Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison’s house while Mom and Dad joined the work crew and helped with getting everything ready for Jaimie’s party.  We had a light lunch together at noon; and then Jaimie’s guests began arriving by one o’clock.  Kid control got a bit more adventurous for Michael and me then – not to mention a little weird for Michael.  He had two of Jaimie’s friends madly crushing on him within about two minutes of meeting him.  Kaitlyn and Jayden thought all of that goofiness from Jaimie’s friends was weird too, but Uncle Blaine and Ad thought it was funny and entertaining; and Aunt Alison and Mom thought that it was sweet – and entertaining.  I’ll personally have to admit that those little scenes were a bit of all of the above for me.  I had fun, and Jaimie’s friends all liked me too; but that was despite being ‘the girlfriend’ for those two love-struck friends.  They really tried their very best not to like me.

Anyway, to keep the story moving along, we basically had a pool party all afternoon.  In addition to Jaimie’s friends, she had a fairly large family and adult friends turnout too; though quite a few of those guests were stop and go visits.  Aunt Alison’s family and a few of their best friends stayed for the pizza dinner too; but the rest of the guests mostly only stayed for an hour or less – unless they had kids along who went for a swim too while they were there.  As I mentioned already, Michael and I were on kid control.  During the afternoon, that mostly meant keeping Kaitlyn, Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana entertained, busy, and mostly out of the way so that Jaimie could have fun with her friends.  Mixing that job with Jaimie’s co-interest in hanging out with Michael and me didn’t always work out; but that’s when the parents jumped in and we switched from junior kid control to cool teen entertainers for the older girls.

While I’m still thinking about Jaimie’s friends, I wanted to mention that Aunt Grace was very popular with them; and Jaimie’s best friends are really close with her from all of the time they spent together when Aunt Grace still lived in Granite Park.  They were very excited about her advanced stage of pregnancy; and were even willing to feel and listen to her stomach.  They like Uncle Mark too, and think that it’s cool that Jaimie’s aunt married a doctor; but there weren’t any crushes on him that I noticed.  Maybe that’s because he and Dad get compared to Uncle Blaine.  None of the girls made it obvious; but I’d say that all of Jaimie’s friends have had a crush on her father – and still do.

They’ve got great taste; but that’s still more than a bit strange for any daughter to deal with.  If you don’t believe me on that; ask Rebecca about it sometime – or Jake’s daughters; if he and Stephanie have any girls in the future.

That got off-track a bit.  The swimming and play time was great this afternoon; and I especially loved the pizza party dinner.  I don’t really miss city life at all; but good take-out pizza is something I could get used to having at home fairly easily.  It also reminded me of my first birthday party in Witch Falls; though I’m sure that dinner choice was just a coincidence – pizza is Jaimie’s favorite take-out option.  The pizza meal was followed by the usual cake and ice cream dessert, and while birthday gifts weren’t that much different from home for nine-year old girls; there was one tiny little exception.  Jaimie’s top gift was a new iPhone that almost-literally had her girlfriends drooling.

Of course, they also thought that it was nuts that Michael and I didn’t have cell phones at all; but I’m pretty much used to that reaction from my cousins’ friends now.

After dinner, it was movie night time; so we piled into cars, minivans, and SUV’s for the hop over to the movie theater.  Michael and I did have the option to go and see something else, but we wouldn’t have done that to Jaimie; and we had as much fun as everyone else did watching Dolphin Tale 2.  The movie was okay; and the fun time with our family was really great – especially since our rare visits to a movie theater are a big deal for Ethan and Ehlana.  Jaimie’s friends found that just as amusing as Dawn’s friends did when they met me, and while I really do like going to see movies on a big screen; I wouldn’t trade that for what we do have back home.

Take-out pizza would be nice, though! ;^)

I skipped over the news that Mom ran over to our hotel this afternoon to get us checked in, but she did that while on an errand run with Aunt Grace anyway; so it wasn’t really news.  That did make the hotel end of our night easier; and that ended up being a really good thing when we added to sleepover guests to our plans at the last minute.  Jayden practically begged Mom and Dad to let him stay the night with Ethan so he didn’t have to be in a house full of girl germs.  That was apparently a concept he’s picked up from his little play buddies – and they apparently learn these things young in the city.  I’m sure that you can guess the approval for his addition to our group led directly to having Kaitlyn come and spend the night with Ehlana and me in our room too – though that was a slightly tougher decision for her when it meant picking the hotel adventure over doing the sleepover with Jaimie and the older girls.  It was actually a not-so-nice comment from one of Jaimie’s friends that tipped the scale; but let’s not go there.  It was one tiny blip in an otherwise great day for Kaitlyn; and the girl probably didn’t even realize she’d hurt Kaitlyn’s feelings.

That did mean going back to the house so that Kaitlyn and Jayden could pack overnight bags; so we went for a quick bedtime swim with Jaimie and her friends too.  We headed to the hotel right after that; went to our rooms; and Michael and I were kept busy getting our roommates ready for bed.  Mom and Dad stopped in to say goodnight to all of us when we then got together in our room – the ‘girls’ room’; but then they were kid-free for the rest of the night.

Use your imagination – I don’t plan on doing that; or writing any more about what my parents spent the rest of the night doing.  Okay, only most of the rest of the night; but that’s already too much information!

We were all together in this room because the boys came over to watch a movie with us.  Yes, it was getting late, but you can’t just go off to sleep right away while on a hotel adventure!  That’d be a total waste – not to mention that Michael and I were okay with a little cuddle time while we watched a Disney movie that was toddler-rated.  Jayden didn’t last long before passing out; but Kaitlyn, Ethan, and Ehlana watched the entire show before Michael and I took Jayden and Ethan over to the other room; we only took time for a quick goodnight hug and kiss by the door; and then I wrapped up my day with some girl chat time with Kaitlyn and Ehlana until they fell asleep.

I needed to wait until Kaitlyn was out for the count before starting my nightly computing, and though I wasn’t doing the full study and work thing; there were still some things that I needed to get done.

There isn’t a lot of news from that to write bout here, but I did have an email from Violet with a report on her play day with Dillon and some friends.  They went to their first Kansas State football game; and got to cheer their team on to a big fifty-eight to twenty-eight win.  After looking up the stats on the game; it wasn’t as close as even that score suggested – though I had Violet’s details already to know that Kansas State had coasted to the end instead of going all out and embarrassing their opponent.  In the world of college football, that seems to be getting very rare when teams worry more about rankings than good sportsmanship.  I won’t say that they did a great job of that, since the score was really ugly already before they let up and started kicking field goals; but let’s give credit where it’s deserved.

While we’re on football anyway, I’d better report that Kyle’s team lost another game this week; though Tim would have to wait until Monday to razz me about it if I didn’t have that as my top chat topic before church or at Sunday school.  Kyle is still doing pretty well; but it’s also a safe bet that he won’t have to worry about winning any national championships or bowl games with his team this season.  Let’s face it – they’re lucky to have a player like him on the roster; and that really is because Kyle wanted to play for his father’s college more than anything else he could have done with a top team.

I don’t really want to talk football anymore, though, and it’s getting late; so I’m going to wrap this up now.  We’ll be up early for breakfast – especially since we now need to drop Kaitlyn and Jayden off at home before heading for Crystal Springs.  We’re also going to miss going to church for a rare Sunday; but there just isn’t time to get to the Malloy’s house in time for the lunchtime birthday party if we stay and go to church in Granite Park.  We are going to have a long day, though, so I’m going to put my computer to bed; cuddle with Ehlana; and get started on my nap.  Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - September 26, 2014

This has been a fairly awesome day – and not just because Michael’s staying here overnight; and we got to have some quality alone time before going to bed for the night.

No, not in the same bed; but I like the way you think! ;^)

I don’t have anything particularly newsworthy to report from the school part of today; so let’s go straight to the football news.  We played Sweetwater Pond tonight, and thanks to a good game plan and on-field play; we’re at the half-way point of the regular season with a four-one record!  Our strategy was really basic – go with the ground game a lot; and eat up the time on the clock as much as possible to keep our defense off the field.  The thirty-seven to twenty-four score suggested that worked; though I’ll add that Sweetwater Pond doesn’t have a stellar run-defense.

They probably felt pretty good about how that was going for them most of the evening because they did hold three of our drives to field goals while keeping the score close; but that was part of our plan too.  Our twenty-three to seventeen lead went south for Sweetwater Pond very quickly thanks to two quick, long-ball touchdowns that Michael and Tim took turns scoring in the fourth quarter after basically being held back all game to that point with just quick, short passes.  Within minutes, we were ahead by twenty points with only a few minutes left in the game; and Sweetwater Pond only managed one more touchdown before we were able to run out the clock on the ground.

I doubt we could pull that off against a better defense, but it worked tonight; and the guys are very happy.  Make that over-the-top pumped up for Jason Johnson – and that got to be just a bit annoying for Michael and Tim after the game.  Thanks to those field goals and four extra-points, and because Michael, Tim, Caleb, and Lucas each scored one of the touchdowns; J.J. was the top scoring player on the team tonight with thirteen points.  I didn’t really need any additional clues to know why Rebecca never really got involved with him, but since big egos are on the rare side in our little town; his example of one is glaring by comparison.  The other guys probably won’t say anything to him about it, but I can assure you that if Michael or Tim start getting big heads like that; Rowen and I will be happy to pop the bubbles and bring them back down to reality again.

Off the field, my favorite moments were with my family.  They were having another dinner and a football game night; and Ehlana, Naomi, and Sophia ran around and pretended to be on our cheerleader squad for a while.  The crowd loved that – especially when Erica led the way and had the three younger girls learn and do a couple of cheers with us.  Mom and Sylvia let them play for about fifteen minutes; and then took custody of them again and they cheered from the stands with Aunt Leanne.  On the teen front, Vanessa and Paul are officially dating now; and she and Nora are both happy because they get to hang out in the section with the player girlfriends – which means most of the ‘cool’ girls.  Nora brought Elliott with her, and while he’d rather be playing football too; he didn’t seem to mind hanging out with Nora and a gang of girls for the evening.

If you have to wonder why any teen guy would have fun hanging out with a bunch of girls wearing the shorts and tops appropriate for temperatures in the high eighties at game time; you’re probably too old to remember what it’s like to be fourteen – or life has changed a whole lot between now and whenever you’re reading this in the future!

Moving along; the post-game celebration on the field was fun but not drawn out as everyone was ready to go somewhere else and have cold drinks or use other methods to cool off.  For the football team and their friends; that wind down time meant another mini-party – this time at the Palmers; where hopping into the river for a swim definitely cooled you off fast.  Michael and I went to the party too, but we didn’t stay long because of our early-morning trip plans.  We got razzed about why we were leaving early, and while we did have a valid reason to head home, the guys weren’t totally wrong in their assumptions either; since we did have some fun once we were alone in the lounge and everyone else had gone to bed.

As always, I’m not going to go into the details of our play time, but we were overdue; clothing was optional; creative use of Magi power was involved; and the hot scale score was right up there with our personal best – top five for sure! ;^)

Going for another swim would have been a good idea to cool off again – if the party hadn’t still been going on at Palmers when it was time for Michael to head downstairs to his room for the night; but we’d have never heard the end of it if we’d been caught doing that by the other teens.  That might be funnier if I could suggest that Michael would have needed to do that without a swimsuit, but Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison, and Terry and Angela, have pools; so he did actually pack a couple of swimsuits for the weekend.

I know, Aunt Leanne – I don’t necessarily need to let facts get in the way of a good story; but I remember too many other times where making jokes like that come back to bite you in the future.  Mom certainly learned her lesson on that one thanks to you!

Anyway, I had a bit of work that needed to be taken care of while doing my nightly computer checks; but I didn’t do any language or archive studying tonight.  I should have been sleeping a couple of hours ago; but wouldn’t trade the extra nap time for that awesome play time with Michael – and I can always nap during the trip to Granite Park if needed.  Some minivan cuddle time with Michael sounds pretty good right now – though so does sneaking down to his room and climbing into bed with him right now.

Don’t go there, Proctor – figuratively or literally! ;^)

Okay, that’s it for tonight.  My next update will be coming to you from a hotel room in Granite Park, and we’ll be on the road heading that way in just a few hours; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!