We’ve ended up with a really nice weather
day here, and that’s made life easier than expected for the movers in the
family as they pretty much finished up with getting Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah,
and the kids moved into their new home by dinnertime today. I’ll get to that news soon; but let’s back up
to yesterday and do the detailed report for Saturday first.
We were able to be outdoors for Tai Chi
yesterday; Dad cooked up a big country breakfast for us; and then it was time
to get to work. For me, that started out
with a few must-do yard chores; and then I was on kid control duty for the rest
of the morning while Mom and Dad were both helping out with the big move. I had help for my job from grandparents, Aunt
Leanne, Aunt Grace, and some friend volunteers; but still kept busy straight
through until lunchtime. That meal was
at Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s new house, but they ate late; and I had
already had my own lunch and was at the park for my ball game by the time the
workers stopped to eat.
Our last regular season game of the summer
was against the Stingrays, and while we did have the chance for an undefeated
season on the line; the outcome of the game didn’t really matter for the
Championship game. We were already in
and had home team advantage; and the Stingrays had won two of three of their
games against the Sharks so they were in the big game too. I have no idea how motivated the Stingrays’
players were today, but Rowen and I were ready to play; and I won’t sugarcoat
the results. We won by a score of
fifteen to five; and it was never really even close from the first inning
on. There was one short rain delay
during the game, but that didn’t slow us down much; and the game still ended
within the normal time – and we were off the field before the next game needed
to start.
I was in need of getting cleaned up after
the game, though, and while we did go for an ice cream celebration; most of the
girls felt the same way, and we kept that Emporium visit short. I grabbed a shower; got dressed to play; and
then returned to my kid control duties.
The major moving was still in progress then, and while we had another
dash or three of rain roll through before we stopped for dinner; the work was
on-track for what they wanted to have done by the time we stopped for
dinner. Where possible, some healing
went on for our favorite movers; which is probably why the coed ball game went
so well for our team – and wouldn’t have without that help. We did have a quick and easy dinner between
the late-afternoon moving and the start of the ball game, but that nothing
particularly newsworthy happened while the adults mostly just vegged-out for a
while and I kept busy on kid control while trying to get a group of toddlers
and pre-schoolers to eat at least a little real food instead of just snacking
on the treats and desserts.
Rowen and Tim met up with us before we
headed to the park for the game; and they’d been recruited to help out with
babysitting tonight. Having a sleepover
at my house was enough of a selling point for them; though the cash comes in
handy too. We were at the park with the
kids while our team was there for warm-ups, and we stopped in to cheer them on
regularly; but I missed most of the game because the kids wanted to play
instead of just sitting around watching our parents playing baseball. The Eagles were up against the Parrots; and
the game actually meant something for both teams. A win for the Parrots meant a three-way tie
for the coed teams; and the score could affect the tie-breaker between the
Eagles, Hawks, and Parrots. The win for
us meant first place and home team advantage for the Championship game; and
would also put the Hawks into the holiday weekend game because they already had
three wins.
As I mentioned, I’m sure that the Magi
healing that was done on the side before dinner helped a lot; and there were
quite a few Hawks players and fans cheering for our team too; but my
cheerleading squad was at the playground so much of the time that I’m sure we
weren’t a factor at all. Fortunately,
the Eagles didn’t need our help. They
were the home team for the game, so the Parrots did have a short-lived lead in
the game; but that didn’t last long; and the Eagles never looked back. They didn’t use the mercy rule, but could
have at one point in the game. The final
score was twenty-one to ten; but the Parrots only did that well because our
team took it easy for the last couple of innings.
We headed home right after the game because
the adults wanted to get cleaned up and ready for their season wrap-up party at
the pub. As I mentioned with the last
report, a camping adventure had been an option for us; but we’d decided to do
our babysitting and a sleepover indoors – partly because the weather forecast
was a bit uncertain; and mostly because taking care of the youngest kids would
have been tough in tents or around a campfire.
Some parental support was there for us while we got all of the kids up
to the lounge and set up to play.
Michael came over from the Inn after they closed for the night; and he
was here before Mom and Dad left for the pub with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne.
It was non-stop action after that, and we
played pretty much until the kids wore us out.
My journal update last night was written while taking a micro-break
between putting two kids to bed and getting back to the fun in the lounge; and
the busy kept going through until Mom and Dad got home along with the parents
that were taking their sleeping angels home with them for the night. Yes, the kids were all sleeping by then; but
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had then needed to clean up – and that took quite a
while to do by the time we had all of the toys put away; the lounge and my room
cleaned up; and the dishes all taken to the kitchen, washed, and put away.
After all of that, I’m sure that you can
understand why Michael and I both wanted to have a sofa sleepover together; and
that’s exactly what we did after saying goodnight to Mom and Dad. Michael and Tim were sharing the guest
bedroom across the hall from the lounge; Rowen went there with Tim for their
goodnight hugs and kisses while Michael and I happily fell asleep on the sofa
in the lounge; and I’m going to pretend that Rowen was sleeping in my bed this
morning when Michael and I woke up for Tai Chi.
She was in my bed by the time that Michael
and I headed downstairs for Tai Chi; and had two junior cuddle buddies with her
while Michael and I were busy exercising with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and
Aiden. We had Zack and Leah with us too;
but they just ran around and played by the river while we worked through our
Tai Chi forms. Mom and Dad skipped the
exercise today, but had kids to take care of too by sometime before we got back
inside; and Rowen and Tim were both helping out by then too.
Breakfast was a wild, toddler-rated adventure;
getting a gang of under-five kids ready for church was exhausting; and then
getting all of them to the church and returned to their parents was yet another
blast of busy that had me ready for a nap.
That wasn’t an option, since we were busy at church with another Sunday
school work session to get ready for the holiday weekend service; and then I
was back on kid control again not long after getting home from church while the
parents in the family worked on a big lunch gathering at our house again before
getting back to day two of the move.
I’ve already mentioned that the weather has
been great today; and that helped me a lot with my babysitting duties. Play time at the park was an option; swimming
breaks were added in when I had extra support for the junior swimmers; and
Michael helped out and played with us while he was on his afternoon break from
the Inn. The one thing that I couldn’t
do was help out at the Inn. They were
really busy again today, and I wish that I could have done that too; but it was
more important to be there for my family – even if I wasn’t doing any of the
moving work.
The house, by the way, looks amazing after
the remodel. I hadn’t exactly spent much
time in the Ayres’ house before now; but it’s as beautiful as Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne’s place – and should be very popular with Aunt Deborah’s family for
holidays now too! That’ll be nice for
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne now that they can share the weekend guests more than
they’ve been able to do so far since getting married; and we have one more big
dining room to help out with major family meals.
I want to speed this up because it’s late
and I’m really tired; so let’s do that.
The work was mostly wrapped up by dinnertime – which meant going to the
late buffet at the Inn for a little celebration. There’s still some unpacking and organizing
to do; but Aunt Deborah will have help for that all week and she’s sure it’ll
be done in time for having her first family guests coming in for the
weekend. Dinner at the Inn was great for
me because I was relieved of kid control duty and allowed to have that meal
with the other teen helpers – including Rowen and Tim. Michael couldn’t get away from the kitchen to
join us; but I went to see him after dinner; and ended up staying to help out
until closing while Mom, Dad, and the twins went home without me.
The work in the kitchen was hot and tiring,
so Michael, Rebecca, and I went for a swim after we got back to their house;
and then Michael and I had some cuddle time on the sofa in his living room
before I came home for the night at eleven o’clock. Mom and Dad were still awake than and working
in the office, but the twins were sleeping.
I had a visit with Mom and Dad; stopped in to kiss my brother and sister
good night; and then got ready for bed and started on my nightly computing and
some family business work that needed to be done before morning.
I was too tired for any major time phasing,
so that’s taken a while; and now I’m only going to have time for a nap before I’ll
need to be awake again and on the go for a day of cheerleading and chores. The chores will be at Grandma and Grandpa’s
house; and the highlight of the day tomorrow is going to be their return home
from Canada. With the holiday weekend
now just days away; there are sure to be a lot of highlights this week –
including baseball championships and a second football game on Friday night. That’s all going to be amazing, along with
everything else we’ll be doing, but I really just need to get some sleep right
now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
