Happy 15th Birthday, Jenny!
While I needed to lead off with that, and
have a bit of Jenny birthday news to cover with this update; there has also
been a lot going on today; and I want to start the report with the football
news.
I should probably start with the news that
Mom was one of our cheerleading squad drivers today, and while she was busy
doing that, Dad brought Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden to the game after he
was finished work; and they both had a surprise for me in Brookbridge. I didn’t find out until shortly before game
time that they’d invited the Malloys to come and catch the game with them – and
see me working the sidelines with the cheerleaders. Having my own little group of fans at the
game definitely had me fired up; and Michael assured me that my hyper-cheering
tonight made a big difference in his game play too.
That’s a particularly good thing for our
team because he had the winning touchdown – though Jason Johnson ran around
patting himself on the back after the game because it was his successful extra
point that technically won the game for us.
I really don’t want to pick on Jason, but when Michael and Tim scored
three touchdowns each; I don’t think it’s too much to suggest that the credit
for the win should be shared. Speaking
of that, I should also mention here that Jeff Morris deserves a lot of credit
too – since he was on the quarterback end of those six touchdowns. I haven’t pointed that out often enough in my
football reports, but while Jeff isn’t flashy and larger-than-life like Kyle
Landry; he is finding a way to get the job done and our team captain deserves
more attention for his efforts than he usually gets.
I’ll also add that while I love seeing
Michael and Tim doing so well, it was a tough game for our running backs. Brookbridge stuffed our run game all night;
kept Caleb and Lucas bottled up; and pretty much turning the game into a
shootout that they expected to win. The
Brookbridge players and fans probably thought they’d succeed too – right up
until they ran out of time for one last comeback after Michael scored on our
final drive of the game. Michael and Tim
each had one good defensive play to help keep Brookbridge from that comeback
too; so I had lots to cheer about right up until the end of the game.
On the sidelines, having the Malloys there
was my personal highlight of the night; though I didn’t actually get to spend a
lot of time with them at half-time or after the game. Jenny’s birthday was also a big deal for our
squad; and she was particularly excited that Lance drove all the way from Maple
Valley to watch her – I mean watch the game – and he took her out to celebrate
her birthday after the game. We – her fellow
cheerleaders – had a little party for her before the game; but her
non-boyfriend highlight of the day was getting her learner’s permit. There were lots of jokes going on about that
today, but since I’m only a bit more than a year away from that teen milestone
now; you won’t hear me making any comments about any other new teen drivers.
Getting that license is a much bigger deal
for the farm kids anyway; since town kids don’t exactly do a lot of daily
driving anyway even after they have their licenses.
Okay, let’s not get bogged down with that
and move along – or back up a bit, in this case.
While I didn’t get to spend a lot of time
with the Malloys, they enjoyed spending that time with Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden. We’ve had awesome
weather today with the temperature still in the seventies at game time; so it
was a perfect night for some family fun and sports. It’s only been a month since my last
pregnancy update for Angela, but I’ll mention that she and the baby are both doing
just fine; and she’s finished with the morning sickness issues now that’s she’s
closing in on the half-way point in her pregnancy. I’m really glad that I got to see them
tonight, since there’s a really good chance that I won’t get to do that again
until after their baby is born – even if Dad will likely still see them once or
twice a month between now and then while working in the city.
That pretty much covers the football news;
so let’s move on to talk about the school Halloween dance. We missed most of it while we were at the
game and then coming home, and by the time we had the gear put away; there wasn’t
much time left to do more than make an appearance – which only about half of
the football players and cheerleaders did.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were with that group; but we didn’t stay
long. Michael and I danced to a couple
of songs; we visited with a few friends; and then I brought him home with me
while Rowen took Tim home to her house so that we could each have a bit of
couples-alone time.
Mom and Dad were still awake when we got
there, and we had a little chat with them; but they’d already put Ethan,
Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden to bed by then.
That made it easy for Michael and I to hang out in the lounge; pretend
to watch a Halloween movie; and make out until he needed to be home for the
night. I’d been very tempted to ask Mom
and Dad to let me keep him for a sleepover too; but resisted the urge – mostly because
that would have been weird with four little kids in the house with us.
That does have me thinking that we’re
overdue for a teen camping adventure – even if we’d need to do that indoors
instead of in tents. I should see what I
can do about that for an upcoming weekend!
I’ve totally skipped the news for the rest
of the day so far, but there really isn’t a lot to write about. Tai Chi was outdoors and by the river; the
rest of the pre-school morning was fairly standard and uneventful; and the top
story of the school day was Jenny’s birthday – and the little party she had at
lunchtime – before heading off to earn her learner’s permit sometime between
lunch and when Mom picked us up for the drive to Brookbridge. ‘Us’ for that included Jenny, Tammy, Rowen,
and me – the four ‘junior’ cheerleaders; and we had Rebecca with us too while
the ‘senior’ cheerleaders were in another minivan with a Palmer family
driver-volunteer.
While I’m thinking about Rebecca, I should
mention that she didn’t go to the dance with Lucas after we got back from the
game. They also didn’t go out with Jenny
and Lance; and didn’t do something else together either. He needed to head home after getting back;
and will apparently be having a tough work day tomorrow that won’t be any
easier after getting pounded on all night at the game by the Brookbridge
defense. I’d help him out with that if I
could get away with it; but that isn’t an option. Rebecca and Lucas are one more good reason
for why I should work on setting up that teen camping night, though; so I’ll
definitely get on that soon.
Lucas isn’t the only teen booked to work on
Saturday, and I’m one of them; so I should wrap this up and get some sleep –
especially since I want to be fully-charged and ready for a fun play night
after the work. The Haunted Halloween
Walk should be awesome tomorrow night – especially when we’re supposed to have
the great weather continue all weekend.
I know that a lot of the teens try to play it cool about the annual
walk, but it’s still one of my favorite events of the year in Witch Falls; and
I’m sure that I’ll always love getting to see the skits and have Miranda guide
us through the ghostly history of our town.
Maybe I’ll even join the troupe that puts
the show on in a few years – if I can ever add something like that to my
already crowded fall schedule.
Anyway, to wind this down, after Michael went
home; I hopped into bed with Mandy and have been working on my computer since
then. While working on the family
business wasn’t in my weekend plans, one of my projects needed a bit of work
done on it tonight to keep the process moving on it; so I took care of my end
of that before moving on to the rest of my usual nightly computer checks. There isn’t anything else to add from any of
that; though I’ll mention that we’re keeping an eye on Hathorne Industries
right now – and will keep doing that through until after Halloween. That isn’t really because we’re expecting any
problems with them coming here to Witch Falls, but this has been a big time of
year for them when it comes to some of their plots and games getting planted or
harvested. We’d like to intervene
whenever possible, and while we actually do get to do that now and then; the
downside of keeping an eye on things is that we also get frustrated about
things that we do see and can’t do anything about.
That’s an appropriately scary topic for
Halloween, but I’ve had enough fun for today, and it really is time for some
quality napping; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
