It’s taken staying up too late again, but I
do have enough family business work finished that I’ll be able to take the rest
of the week off from it – except for the usual daily work that pops up through
my email. I’m glad that it’s out of the
way; but I am so going to need a vacation by next week!
That isn’t going to happen; so let’s just
move this along so that I can at least have a nap before getting my Thursday
going.
We had rain in town this morning. That meant exercising indoors; Michael stayed
for breakfast; and then he was off and running to go home and get ready to head
out for his football practice with Tim.
Yes, it was still raining then; which is why Rowen, Dawn, Jillian, and I
were not interested in going to the park to watch the workout. I didn’t find out until later, but most of
the other guys felt the same way; and Tim was annoyed that only Michael and one
other guy showed up for the training.
Michael wasn’t annoyed at all, but he does have some concerns already
about the attitudes of the guys he’s expecting to be team mates with this year
have about getting ready to play – and defend their two-time championship
titles.
While Michael was first getting wet and
playing football, and then moving on to the Inn to help out there for the rest
of the day; I spent my morning at home.
Mom was happy to get some help with the chores; Dawn, Jillian, and I all
spent some time playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; and then we had
lunch at noon before heading out to play for the afternoon. The rain had ended by then, and while most of
the trails at the park were too wet to ride on; we biked around town; did a bit
of window shopping; had an ice cream break at the falls; and then played at the
park while Michael was on his afternoon break.
The playground time was followed by a long swim before Michael needed to
go back to the Inn.
By the way, since that has me thinking
about the Inn expansion; Mr. Ayres has basically been having a sale at his
store all summer. I haven’t paid much
attention to that, and we didn’t visit the Haberdashery today either; but I did
notice the signs while going past the store this morning and it reminded me
that the Stones and Ayres have a lot going on this summer that goes way beyond
weddings and house moves. For Uncle Nick’s
father, the sales are all about making the move to his new store in September
as easy as possible – along with down-sizing a bit to a store that is a bit
smaller – though that’s mostly from the storage room side of the place. The good news for the Ayres is that they’ll
be done with all of the crazy by the end of September or early October. Michael and his family will be busy with the
Inn expansion for the next couple of years – and longer; once they have all of
that extra room for customers and guests!
I am so not going to let Stephanie read
this update until after they’re home to stay – or she might get scared and
decide to keep Jake in Europe! ;^)
Getting back to the news of the day again,
after Michael left for the Inn; Dawn and Jillian kept my brother, sister, and
their friends entertained while I went to help Mom with some more work in the
house that included making dinner for nine – with a menu that didn’t include
any grilling at all for a change. Violet
and Dillon were with his family for dinner because they needed to be there to
get ready for the party they threw for Jake and Stephanie after the Inn
closed. I went over there to help them
after dinner while everyone else at my house headed for the park and the co-ed
baseball practice.
Our dinner break was fun; the four younger
kids took charge of entertaining Mom and Dad; and I stayed to help with the
clean-up before heading over to the Jacobs’ house. With the weather cooperating, having the
party outdoors was an option; so we set up a few tables in the back yard – even
though it was dark out by the time the party started at around
nine-thirty. This event was only for Jake,
Stephanie, and the members of their wedding party. Dillon’s parents, Isabelle, and Andrew helped
out with some of the work too; but they also mostly left us alone when we sat
down to enjoy a couple of hours of fun that included the obligatory roasting
for Jake and Stephanie.
Michael, Rebecca, and I didn’t participate
in the roasting nearly as much as everyone else did; but then Jake could have
easily roasted himself for as often as he helped his buddies out with their
stories. For me, the most entertaining
stories were the ones that I hadn’t heard before. That’s saying a lot in our little town where
everybody hears everything about everyone!
Dillon and Mitch had some stories about their childhood and teens years that
weren’t too wild; but definitely the kinds of activities that boys would not
want their parents finding out about at the time. I won’t repeat those stories here, but
Michael, Rebecca, and I did appreciate a few good ideas that we might think
about trying out over the next few years to see if we can get away with them
too!
Just kidding, Mom – or not! ;^)
Taking another little side-trip on that
thought; you might be wondering whether my journal actually is open to Mom;
since she is, after all, a computer genius.
The answer to that is yes and no.
I don’t have a problem with Mom reading anything I write if she chooses
to; though she hasn’t asked to do that since turning my journals over to me to
continue on my own after years of writing most of them herself when I was
younger. The ‘no’ part of that is
because we do all have our little corners of the archives password
protected. They’re kept on systems and
software that Mom created, but even though she could eventually crack any
password, even using her Magi gifts; it’d take months or years to do that with
my password choice. I definitely don’t
want to bore you with those details; and just thought that you might be
interested to know that Mom does allow all of us assured privacy for our
personal journals if we want to have that.
While most of us have to work on Thursday,
we still stayed and talked until after midnight; Jake and Stephanie were sent
on their way; and the rest of us took care of the clean-up before heading home
too. It was one-thirty by the time
Michael kissed me goodnight on my front porch and then walked the rest of the
way home; everyone in the house was sleeping by then; and I came straight up to
my room and hopped into bed with Mandy and my computer as soon as I finished
getting changed and ready for bed.
Violet and Dillon got back then after having a late-night chat with
Isabelle and Andrew; but they went straight to their room and didn’t stop in to
chat with me.
I am so proud of myself – I called it ‘their’
room instead of Violet’s room! That
change in thinking took me a while; and maybe it’s taken the change of having
them stay here while any members of Violet’s family are here for me to make
that transition.
If I keep getting side-tracked; I’ll still
be doing this update when it’s time to get up for Tai Chi; so let’s just wrap
this up quickly and I’ll get started on my nap.
I got right to work once I was in bed; put
a lot of effort and Magi power into the job; and blasted through everything I
wanted to get finished before taking time off from work to focus on the wedding
– and everything else we have going on over the next four or five days. Getting such a late start meant taking a few
chances and using some Magi power to speed that work up; but nobody woke up at
all while I was working and I’m really glad that I won’t need to finish up
tomorrow night.
Maybe I’ll even manage to get to sleep
before four o’clock tomorrow night too!
That would be nice, but I’ll have to settle for that nap and a self-heal
tonight. I’m going to get right to the
first part of that now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
