Cassie's Journal - February 27, 2015

I’m actually really tired right now, so this is going to be a micro-report.

My day started out as usual with Tai Chi and breakfast before I got ready for school and headed out to meet up with Rowen for the walk to school.  Michael and Rebecca were both at the school early for weight training and basketball practice respectively.  Rebecca and her team had a morning practice today instead of having one after school and then having their playoff game on Saturday.  We had another quiet day at school, though also got a bit of extra homework for the weekend because we’ll be writing tests in pretty much every subject over the next two weeks leading into March Break.

Michael was at the Inn again tonight, so I was on my own; and helped Mom out with getting everything ready for dinner and travel story time with our family.  Grandma and Grandpa came over early to hang out with us, but Aunt Leanne stayed late because of month-end work; so Grandpa picked up Zack from KidZone and brought him over so that Aunt Leanne didn’t need to do that after work.

Dad and the rest of our uncles, aunts, and cousins eventually joined us; and we sat down to eat shortly after the doctors rounded out our group after closing the clinic for the weekend.  The daily recaps came first during dinner before Grandma and Grandpa started telling their amazing travel stories; and they then kept us all entertained until around ten o’clock; when the parents with younger kids decided that it was time to head home and get their little angels – or cranky cousins – home and off to bed.  It wasn’t long after that before I was helping out with getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed; and then I came up to my room once they’d been tucked in for the night.

I’ve finished the basic nightly computing and some family business work that needed to get done tonight, and once I’m finished with this update; I’m heading off to sleep too.  It’s really been a fun night, and we’re going to have some more fun tomorrow at the Maple Valley Winter Festival; so I really do want to re-charge tonight so I’ll be ready for that little adventure.  Michael can’t go along with us tomorrow because he’s going to stay with his Dad at the Inn while Miranda and Rebecca are at the basketball game, and Rowen and Tim are both going to be working too; but we will have Naomi and Aiden with us so that’ll be fun for Mom, Dad, and me.

I don’t have anything else to cover tonight, and really am ready to crash for a while; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - February 26, 2015

Welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa!

They had an amazing travel adventure, though we only got to hear a couple of stories tonight; so I’m glad we’ll have more time for that tomorrow night.  It was going on seven o’clock by the time they got to town, and by the time we’d helped with unloading the minivan and helping them to get settled in; we only spent another hour or so visiting before it was time for us – all of the kids and grandkids – to head back to our homes so that Grandma and Grandpa could get some sleep after a long travel day.

That time with them was the highlight of my day, and though I missed out on helping out at the Inn and game night this week; that apparently worked out for Michael, because he teamed up with Rebecca for the gaming and they won the junior championship.  Maybe he’ll want me to skip game night more often! ;^)

We had another quiet day at school, and it was not very much fun for any of us to have temperatures in the mid-fifties yesterday and then get to feel them plunge to a wind-chill that wasn’t just sub-freezing – it was sub-zero.  I’m not suggesting that we were in need of yet another winter weather advisory or anything – but I am saying that sixty degree swings in about twelve or fifteen hours does suck.  I’d feel the same way about that if it went from one hundred to forty that quickly.

Moving along, while I didn’t help out at the Inn tonight, Michael and I did still do our homework together – and with Rowen and Tim.  The computer store was study central today; and that was a nice little change of venue.  We haven’t studied there in quite a while; and should get back to doing that more often.  I walked Michael to the Inn; headed home; and got there in time to help Mom with making dinner while getting the daily report from her – and Ethan and Ehlana.

I haven’t mentioned their work at the lab much in my journal lately; but they are keeping busy there and having a lot of fun together.  Mom is still using her cover story for working on the computer systems there; though she has most of that finished now.  Ehlana spends a lot of her time there with Uncle Adam; while Mom and Ethan play in the archives.  They aren’t continually getting new shipments in from the other archives around the world, since they come in bursts as Grandma Eleanor, Grandpa Grant, and the others who are helping them get the books ready to ship and on the way as they clear out and close down the other archive locations around the world.

I’m not in the loop for most of that work except for reading the updates; but that work is continuing on-time; and getting all of the archives moved here should be completed by spring of twenty-eighteen.  Our volunteers do not have a problem with three more years of exotic travel for the cause; though Grandma and Grandpa Wingborough are the only volunteers planning to do three or four trips each year.

Mom and I had dinner ready to go by the time that Dad got home from the office; we had lots of time to eat and clean up before going over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house; and we had the heat turned up and snacks and hot drinks ready to go by the time they pulled into the driveway.  Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack were there by then too; and their contribution to the work effort had been to pick up Olde Bakery treats for that snack time.  I’ve already mentioned the basics of our reunion, and the stories will eventually be in Grandma and Grandpa’s archive journals; so I won’t try to out-tell the master for those travel tales.

Once we were home again, Mom did my Magi lesson with me while letting Ethan and Ehlana do some college course studying; we took a break after that to get them off to bed; and then I was allowed to work and study in the office for an hour while Mom and Dad both worked on their computers too.  I was sent to bed at eleven-thirty while Mom and Dad kept working, and while that seems just a little unfair; I have orders to be at least attempting to sleep by midnight; so I need to wrap this up and get to it.  Some teens might be able to get away with faking it for things like that, but the links that Ethan, Ehlana, and I share with Mom makes that impossible.

No, that isn’t always fun from a teen perspective; but the bonuses are way better than the downside.  I’m sure that Mom feels the same way about that from an adult perspective.

We don’t really need to get into that tonight, and I do need to get to the sleeping part of the going to sleep by midnight thing; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - February 25, 2015

Congratulations Rebecca, Carolyn, and the rest of our girls’ basketball team!

Miranda and I had a blast going to the game and cheering for them, and though I seriously doubt that our efforts made a difference; the upset win was certainly an awesome surprise – if not for the favored home team and their fans.  Carolyn won the game for us in the closing minutes, and while the game had been close until then, she came through with the high-pressure baskets while her opponents did not.

While the game was the highlight of the trip; I really liked having the drive time with Miranda too; and we also picked up fast food to go for the drive home instead of waiting and eating late.  When she dropped me off at home, Miranda stayed for a visit with Mom, Dad, and the twins before going on to the Inn to help with closing up for the night; and that was entertaining too because she helped out with my Magi lesson while she was here.

Compared to that play time, the rest of my day was fairly boring.  School was good, and basketball had top billing for the school news network; but nothing particularly exciting happened all day.  The temperature outdoors rose into the high fifties; we spent most of our lunch break outside; and had fun, but that break in the cold was tempered by knowing that we’re heading back into the freezing temperatures again tonight.  We’re also getting a bit of snow tonight too, and had a spit or three of rain earlier while Miranda and I were away at the game; but we’re not expecting a major snow event overnight or tomorrow.

After Miranda left for the Inn, Mom let me work on the family business with a time phase to let me work a bit longer and get the extra work done; but that’s had the side-effect of tiring me out.  We all called it a night at ten-thirty; Mom, Dad, and I were all in on the bedtime story with Ethan and Ehlana; we tucked them in for the night; and then I came up to my room to get ready for bed too.  I opted for a quick shower because I needed one after all of the cheering at the game in a hot gymnasium; but then I cheated to get my hair dried so that I could get into bed with Mandy and wrap up my night with the usual computer checks and this journal update.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow because Grandma and Grandpa will be home by early evening at the latest unless they have some travel delays.  It’s going to be great to have them home – even if it’s only for a short time before they’ll be heading south again – this time to Florida for their usual winter getaway.  We’ll likely miss game night so that we can have a visit with them, and I’ll probably skip helping out at the Inn during the dinner rush too; but I’ll let you know about that with the next update.

Having our grandparents home is going to be a highlight for the week, but we’re also heading into some busy days through the weekend.  Since Grandma and Grandpa will be home, we’ll be doing a dinner and something entertaining night with them and the rest of our family on Friday; the Maple Valley Winter Festival is this weekend; and Rebecca and her team will also now have a second-round playoff game on Saturday.

I’m getting tired out just thinking about all of that – though I’m already pretty much in need of some quality down time; so that’s all I have for tonight, and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - February 24, 2015

Congratulations, Stacey and Pastor John!

They’ll know why soon enough; but I couldn’t exactly tell Stacey what I sensed when hugging her before our teen praise team practice this evening.  Their little surprise won’t actually arrive until sometime in early November, but the Burroughs’ family and their congregation and friends will be thrilled with the news whenever Stacey does get around to getting Uncle Adam or Uncle Mark to do a certain test and they get the positive results.

That’s my one and only newsworthy story for today.

Tai Chi and breakfast was good; we had a few hours of above-freezing temperatures today; and I pretty much was on the run from morning until now with school, band practice, homework, teen praise team practice, and my evening Magi lesson and family business work session in the office.  Mom let me do a bit of language and archive studying too while using a time-phase for a while; but she still sent me off to bed before eleven; and Michael and I have totally missed out on any alone time opportunities during his two weekdays off from the Inn.

Speaking of work days, I’ll still need to find time for mine despite having a basketball playoff game to attend with Miranda tomorrow; so I should get the extra sleep tonight while I can.  Mom might not be happy with the need to do that tomorrow night, but I can only juggle the work schedule so much; and I’ll need to make up those lost hours sooner instead of later.  She has been fairly insistent about my cut-back on the long days, though; so I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

For now, though, that’s all I have; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - February 23, 2015

The top news of the day for me was the family business meeting tonight, and while that was fun; there really isn’t anything new to report that I haven’t covered during the last couple of meeting-night journal updates.  That’ll change with the next meeting, since we’ll be heading into spring with a lot going on through until summer; but I’ll save what I do know already about that until then.

It was still cold out today, so being indoors was okay with me; and I was really only outside to get between home and school; school and Michael’s house; and then home again in time for that meeting.  The top story at school today was that the girls’ basketball team is in the playoffs; and their first-round match is on Wednesday.  That’ll be an away game, and they’re up against a top team; but they’re fired up, and Carolyn is particularly enthusiastic about their chances as heavy underdogs.  I may actually be going to that game with Miranda, and we talked about that at dinner; but she won’t decide for sure until Wednesday – and it’ll depend on whether she can get the server schedule shuffled so that she can miss most or all of the dinner rush.  I’ll guess that she’ll have lots of volunteers to help her out with that; since she rarely asks for that kind of help for herself.

While Rebecca had an extra-long practice after school with her team, I went home with Michael; we did our homework; and then helped out with the pre-dinner work while having a fun little chat time with his parents.  Jacob cooked up another experimental entree that was amazing; Michael and I had time for a music practice; and then I needed to get home after that while he planned on watching some television with his parents and sister before going to bed.  I’ve already mentioned that there wasn’t anything going on in the meeting that was new information; so it didn’t really take that long to cover the updates on all current and in-the-works for the future projects.  Once my aunts, uncles, and cousins had left again; Mom did my Magi lesson with me while the twins did some college studying.  We followed that up with getting them off to bed for the night; and then I was allowed just under an hour to work on family business jobs before being sent up to my room for the night too.

I’ve pretty much just gotten ready for bed and done my nightly computer checks since then; and I’m definitely ready for some nap time now.  I’ll be switching the family business meeting for band and praise team practices tomorrow, but those should both be fairly easy; since we have some time before our next events for both groups.  It will still mean fitting the rest of my usual work and studying into less time again, though; so it’ll still be a long day – even if I don’t get to put in as many hours as I’d like right now.  Maybe I’ll sneak in a bit of time phasing to help out with that; but we’ll see if Mom and Dad will let me do that too.

Anyway, that is all I have for now, so I’m out of here; and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!