Happy 34th Birthday, Patricia!
It’s been a fun day, and I’m sure that
trend is continuing for Rowen’s Mom while she’s enjoying a kid-free night with
her husband; but Rowen and I do not require the details about her parents’
post-party, overnight entertainment.
That’s also why it’s relatively easy for
our parents to get kid-free nights for these special occasions – we don’t want
to be in the same house while those adult-rated activities are going on!
We were good with the shopping day in Crystal
Springs, though; so let’s get this update moving along with those
highlights. There wasn’t time for Tai
Chi this morning because we needed the extra time to get ready and have
breakfast before heading out of town and hitting the road for the big city. Owen had to work at the computer store today,
but we had a fairly large shopping group that included my family, the rest of
Rowen’s, Michael and Tim, and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins. The timing of the trip was convenient for
some birthday fun, but most of us were there to do some shopping for upcoming
gift needs and to pick up some new clothes that we’ll need for our March Break
trip to Florida.
The trip to the Mall was fairly uneventful,
and while Dad and Uncle Adam took a load of boys with them in Uncle Adam’s
minivan; Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Patricia had Rowen, Ehlana, Naomi, and me with
them in Mom’s minivan – at least for the trip to the city. Rowen and I paired up with boyfriends for the
trip home. I won’t bore you with the
details of the shopping, since half of the Magi reading this in the future –
the male half – will not likely care about that any more than guys do in my ‘now’. We had a blast, though; and even Michael,
Tim, and the other guys managed to have some fun. No, that wasn’t because their favorite girls
spent some of the time trying on swimsuits; but that was an added bonus for
some of them!
What I do want to mention is that we picked
up a couple of months worth of family and friends gifts for upcoming birthdays,
Valentine’s Day, and other events; and those of us who are going to Florida in
March are all set with new clothes for that trip too. That was a bigger deal for the teens and kids
because most of us have already outgrown our summer clothes from last year; but
the Moms in our group were also happy to pick out a few things – and Aunt
Leanne chose some adorable new maternity clothes that she’ll grow into between
now and then. She’ll be five months
along by then, and won’t be able to do a lot of the rides and other extreme
activities; but she’s also going to be the hottest-looking pregnant woman in
Florida while we’re there. Yes, I’m
totally biased; but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong about that! ;^)
We had lunch at the Mall food court for a
break between the morning and afternoon shopping segments of the day; and then
we made a fairly short stop at Wal-Mart on the way out of town for the usual
supply run. The birthday girl and some
of the parents needed to be home early enough to get ready for their birthday
dinner and night out. Michael was
helping out for the dinner rush at the Inn; and Rowen and I were on babysitting
detail once we’d finished helping out with unloading the vehicles and getting
everything put away at her house and mine.
My parents were on the guest list for the
dinner party and play time at Sheldon’s Pub; and Rowen and I were taking care
of the twins, Naomi, and Aiden tonight while they were out – including feeding
them dinner. That was comparatively easy
after helping out with the bigger dinner last night; and it was easy to keep
the four kids entertained all evening too – especially after Michael and Tim
joined us and kept Ethan and Aiden happy with some pre-bedtime video gaming.
While we were having fun at home, the
parents were at the Inn for dinner – going there after most of the stores in
town closed for the night; and then they moved on to Sheldon’s after that. The only change from other party nights was
that most of the adults doing the celebrating with Patricia opted to head home
again by midnight – mostly due to the risk of snow and icy roads from the rain
that had been falling all day and the snow that was starting to fall by
then. The forecast is for a couple of
inches of the white fluffy stuff overnight and through the day on Sunday, but
since the temperature is hovering around freezing; the travel worry is more for
having icy roads than from that bit of snow cover.
I’m okay with my favorite people being
careful about that – especially when my parents both helped out with designated
driver duties tonight and did some driving around out into the country tonight
too. They were both home safely by
twelve-thirty – which coincidentally was when Michael and Tim headed home for
the night. Since Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi,
and Aiden were all up and partying with us until nearly eleven-thirty tonight,
that didn’t leave Rowen and I much time for cuddling with our respective
boyfriends; but we took what we could get for that; and split up for the last
ten or fifteen minutes so that the goodbye hugs and kisses were at least a bit
hotter than they would have been if we’d waited to do that until after Mom and
Dad got home.
Rowen and I had a little chat with Mom and
Dad before we all headed for bed; so it was almost one o’clock by the time we
were changed and had joined Mandy in my bed.
I got started on my nightly computing after that while Rowen’s been
doing some YouTube surfing and keeping me entertained with both the videos and
girl chat time. That’s been fun, but we’re
both getting tired out; so it’s time to start wrapping this up. I am supposed to be doing a double update,
though; so I guess we’d better make the Friday part of this report one of those
condensed micro-updates.
We started out our last day of the work-school
week with morning Tai Chi; Michael stayed for a quick breakfast; and then he
moved on to home to get ready for school before hurrying there in time for his
morning workout with Tim and the rest of their football fanatics. It was a quiet day at school; and Michael,
Tim, and Rowen came home with me once we were set free for the weekend. There was time for some after-school play;
Rowen and I helped Mom with making dinner for the gang we had over for our
dinner and a movie night; and Michael and Tim kept the twins entertained in the
lounge while we were busy in the kitchen.
Mom and Dad pretty much had the full, usual gang over for the dinner and
most of them stayed for the movie too; though they did that in the living room
while I had my friends, Ethan, and Ehlana in the lounge for the evening once we’d
finished cleaning up after the meal.
There wasn’t a sleepover last night, but
that was mostly because Rowen wanted to be home to do the birthday breakfast
with her Mom this morning – and because Rowen was already booked to be here
tonight anyway. Michael, Tim, and Rowen
did stay with me later than the rest of our guests did; though that was because
they didn’t have babies or toddlers to get home and into bed. They didn’t stay really late because of the
shopping trip, but then I missed out on most of the teen fun after Ethan and
Ehlana went to bed because of that whole falling asleep thing that I mentioned
in my last update. Cuddling with Michael
up until I went into nap mode was fun; and waking up to his kiss when he was
ready to head home and get me to go to bed was good too; though I still wish I’d
stayed awake for all of that movie and teen chat time. I need to get a grip on that before I start
getting teased about that as often and Mom and Dad still get razzed about their
previous tendency to have naps together during their months of dating.
Anyway, that nap time was pretty much the
last bit of news from Friday. Michael
and Rowen wouldn’t let me see them out after Michael finished waking me up; and
they sent me straight to bed before seeing themselves out for the night by a
bit after midnight. I vaguely remember
getting changed and then crashing again after cuddling in my bed with Mandy;
and then I was out until morning. It
never even crossed my mind to try doing any bedtime computing last night.
It is crossing my mind right now that it’s
time to put this computer away and get to sleep. We could have a busy morning if we need to
shovel the driveway before going to church – or taking turns having a shower and
getting ready for the day. Whatever snow
we do get probably won’t last long because it’s supposed to warm up at least a
bit by Monday; but I guess it is nice to end January and start February with a
bit of the white stuff on the ground.
We don’t have any plans for Sunday; though
I’m expecting to help out at the Inn all day to make up for Michael getting to
go with us for the shopping trip today.
We’ll need to do our weekend homework too, since we didn’t do that on
Friday night or Saturday; but that won’t take long and we can get it done while
on our afternoon break tomorrow. I’ll do
a weather update with the next report too; but don’t expect any major issues
when at most we’re only supposed to get an inch or two of snow. That’ll only be an issue if we end up with a
bunch of freezing rain instead.
That didn’t exactly end up being a
micro-update, and Rowen and I really do need to get some sleep; so that’s it
for now, and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
