Happy Father’s Day, Dad! Ditto that for all of my favorite fathers!
It was a hot, humid morning, so Tai Chi by
the river was followed by a cool-down swim for the kids and teens in our
exercise group. Michael needed to head
home to his own Father’s Day breakfast; and Ethan, Ehlana, and I helped Mom out
with making breakfast for five while Dad had the morning off from all
chore-type work. We couldn’t do anything
about the job or volunteer work he had booked for today; so we did the best we
could to help him have fun despite the non-optional activities. Breakfast consisted of Dad’s favorite foods;
we had him open his gifts while we ate; and then Mom and I had to rush around a
bit to get the clean-up done while also getting ourselves and the twins ready
for church.
We met up with Michael and his family for
the walk to church; Jacob and Dad opened the smaller, bonus gifts that Michael
and I had jointly gotten for them along the way; and then we all enjoyed Pastor
Martha’s short Sunday service gift to the fathers in the congregation that was
so short that she didn’t even bother to send the kids and teens off to Sunday
school. That gave us lots of time to
head home again, get changed, and gather our food donations together before
heading over to Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s house for the family barbeque lunch
that the women and teens in the family were putting on for our favorite
fathers.
I was on the work crew for both the pre and
post-meal action while the fathers and grandfathers were in charge of the
younger kids, and that kept me very busy; but we had fun too. In case you’re wondering, Aunt Leanne was not
put to work, but she did supervise; and she’s pretty much at the stage now when
she’s ready to self-impose her reduced work schedule. She isn’t quite finished with working in the
office yet; but will be done soon – at least for the summer. I’m glad that she was hanging out with us
while we worked; since her pregnancy stories are always entertaining – if occasionally
a bit too intimately detailed.
The one little glitch in the Father’s Day
plans today wasn’t a huge deal; but it did mean an early end to our barbeque
lunch. The threat of imminent
thunderstorms had us running to clear the back yard before maybe half of us had
finished eating our meals. We managed to
do that without getting too wet; though that meant having a bit more work to
straighten out the mess; finish having lunch and dessert in the dining room and
kitchen; and then moving on to our afternoon plans.
For me, that included doing some
babysitting while the parents were busy at the med center. The thunderstorm didn’t last all that long,
but it had poured; so hanging out at the park playground wasn’t exactly an
option. That’s why our afternoon play
time was at our home; and my room and the lounge were hang-out central. Michael helped me out for some of that action
while on his afternoon break, and while we had fun with the twins and my
cousins; we were both ready for a break by the time Mom and Dad relieved us of
duty and I went on to the Inn with Michael to help out with the buffet shift.
The dining room was sold out more than
twice over for the two buffets, but while Miranda had been tempted to add a
third buffet; she hadn’t wanted to give Jacob and the other fathers even more
work to do than normal; so we just kept turning over the tables as best as we
could to satisfy as many customers as possible.
That was the royal ‘we’, since I had zero involvement with that; but I
did do my very best to keep the prep line and dishwashing moving along. Jacob had me switch back and forth between
those two jobs as needed, and while we all worked really hard; I loved getting
to spend that time with Michael, his family, and our friends on the staff there
– including Jenny.
She had a lot to talk about with Rebecca
and me; and it was pretty much all about Joel, his car, and her expectations
for a best-summer-ever with him. Trust
me, you do not want me to write about all of the details, so I won’t; and we’ll
just move this update right along.
I worked in the kitchen until the first
wave of food went out for the late buffet sitting; and then I joined my family
to have dinner with them. They were all
there, along with quite a few of our friends; so I was also again on kid
control – and at a kid table that Rowen, Tim, and Patrick joined me at so that
I could get some support while making sure than some of my cousins actually ate
something more than desserts or sweets.
That meant not having much time with the adults in the group; though I
did also get to talk with Violet and Dillon for nearly ten minutes while they
gave all of us a micro-report on their weekend in Woodvale. While I could have taken the rest of the
night off, I didn’t do that; and only stayed long enough to eat and make sure
that the kids at my table had eaten enough of the right foods to earn dessert
before heading back to the kitchen and the literal piles of work left to do
there that was almost entirely on the clean-up end of the job.
I stayed until Jake and Stephanie closed
the Inn for the night; and then walked home with them, Michael, and
Rebecca. Jacob and Miranda had been sent
on ahead once the cooking was done for the night; and they’d already gone off
to bed by the time we got home. We had
drinks and a short chat out on the back porch after getting there, but Jake,
Stephanie, and Rebecca were all ready for bed by then too; so it wasn’t long
before Michael and I were on our own. We
decided to sit out by the river so that we could talk and finish our drinks
without bothering anyone, and although it was tempting to go for a sofa
sleepover; I wanted to be home for the start of Ethan and Ehlana’s birthday in
the morning; so I went home at eleven o’clock instead. Michael and I did share a mildly hot, moonlit
goodnight hug and kisses by the river, though, and now that we’re on summer
vacation; we are definitely going to figure out a way to have more Michael and
me alone time!
That won’t be happening tomorrow, because
in addition to it being Ethan and Ehlana’s fourth birthday; the med center is
opening; and it’s going to be non-stop action all day and night. I’ll need to get some sleep to be ready for
all of that, but I still have a few more details to cover with this update
before going off to dreamland. Mom and
Dad were still awake and working in the office – and they had Violet and Dillon
hanging out with them. Though she’d
offered to give me a night off from my lessons, we ended up doing a short Magi
lesson that she had Violet and Dillon help out with. That was fun, but we got in the way of Dad’s
work a bit; so Violet, Dillon, and I all headed up to the third floor once we
were done so that he could work in peace – and Mom could help him out with a
time-phase so that he wouldn’t need to stay awake for hours more while trying
to get ready for a very busy work week.
Hopefully that’ll work out for him, since he will be involved in the
birthday fun and the med center grand opening tomorrow too; but I’ll be
sleeping before finding out whether less work will mean more play for Mom and
Dad tonight – and I don’t really need to know one way or the other anyway.
Violet and I had a nice little girl chat in
my room while Dillon grabbed a shower and got ready for bed; and then she left
me to grab a shower too. I’d been
tempted for a long soak in the Jacuzzi, but didn’t want to do either a time
phase or spend an actual hour or more in the tub; so the shower option worked
better tonight. I’m sure Mandy
appreciated that a lot after I’d been working in a hot, humid kitchen for
hours; and I was definitely in need of the clean-up. I did use a time phase to speed up getting my
hair done; and kept my bedtime computing to a minimum tonight. There was one bit of family business work to
deal with, but that didn’t take long; and there was basically no non-work email
to deal with – except for one email from Dawn and Jillian that gave me their
perspective of Violet’s visit home.
Okay, that’s it for tonight. I need to be up early, so let’s skip the look
at the week ahead and just call it a night.
There’s going to be a lot going on all week; and I don’t want to spend
the time reviewing all of it now. You’re
reading this in my future anyway; so you can just keep flipping the digital
pages anyway if you really can’t wait to discover what adventures are ahead for
me over the next week – or longer, for that matter. Since I need to actually live it, and time
phases can’t be used to jump ahead in time; I’m good with getting some sleep
now so that I’ll be ready for all of the fun and excitement. With that simple goal in mind, I’m out of
here; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
