Congratulations to everyone on the Stone
side of Michael’s family – it’s a girl!
Erica Bishop was born very early this
morning; she and her mother, Sally, are both doing well; and proud Daddy, Eric,
is apparently having a tougher day because Erica’s big brother, Gerry, is not
impressed with his new baby sister – or all of the attentions she’s getting.
Speaking of attention for Michael’s newest
cousin, Jacob and Miranda hit the road early this morning to drive up to Garden
City and see the new baby. They’re
staying there overnight instead of spending most of one day in the car and only
having time for a short visit; and then they’ll be back sometime tomorrow
evening. Michael and Rebecca are staying
at home this time, and while Jenny did apparently joke about Rebecca having a
major party while the parents are away tonight; they’re being good – and Michael
spent most of the evening here, or at least with me, while their parents are
away. That’s getting ahead of this
update, though; so let’s back up and take it from the start of my day.
Tai Chi was more fun thanks to the baby
report that Michael brought with him. He
needed to hurry back home after we exercised so that he could help out there
while his parents were busy packing for their impromptu trip. I went over to see them off with bonus hugs
and kisses before breakfast because they were ready to get started on the long
drive; and then the rest of my morning was a bit too busy as I got ready for
school and was also in charge of the breakfast clean-up today.
While exams are over for this round of
them, the work at school didn’t stop; and we began new study modules in every
class today. That was at least a change,
but the big news story around school was for something that happened tonight –
the first planning meeting for the marching band. Michael, Rowen, and I are three of the teen
volunteers; Tim’s at least temporarily been drafted by his girlfriend; and my
Mom, Michael’s, and Rowen’s father are among the parent and adult
volunteers. We have a lot to get done
between now and the first marching band practice in April; and the meeting
tonight was all about getting organized – and assigning jobs to everyone.
I won’t bore you with every little detail
from the meeting; but here’s a short list for some of the work we need to do
over the next two months or so. We need
to plan all of the fundraiser activities and start working on the first of them
so that at least the first of them will be ready to go for the first week of
band practices. We need to design and
then choose uniforms; organize and plan for parades; decide on whether our new
band will play at football games – and how we’d do that when so many members
will also be from the team or cheerleaders – not to mention the cost of travel
to away games and other issues. The trip
to Florida is going to be a huge undertaking; so we’ll have a sub-committee for
that, and while we already know that we have a lot of interest in going to
Florida with the teens; we’ll also need enough volunteer chaperones that the
parents are going to deal with recruiting.
The full list of work seems a bit daunting, but if needed, some of us
can literally make the time to get everything done; so I’m not actually worried
about that.
The fundraisers are going to be the biggest
issue for the Florida trip, and while Mom and I could just pay for the entire
thing, we obviously couldn’t do that openly; and the teachers among us want
that to be as much of a learning experience as everything else will be. We do live in a small town, though, and we’re
talking about a lot of money from a per person living here perspective. That won’t work without a lot of fundraiser
support from summer visitors and tourists, since we’re talking about at least
several hundred dollars per local person to raise enough money for the trip; so
getting those dollars – especially on holiday weekends – will need to be a real
priority for the fundraising team. Mom,
Michael, and I will be helping with that too; but we’ll really get started on
that at our next meeting.
So much for not boring you with the details. Let’s move on before I really start getting
wound up about the whole thing.
I skipped over the after school studying at
my house for Michael and me. Rebecca was
at Jenny’s for dinner; Michael stayed with me; and then Mom took us to the
meeting at the school while Dad stayed home to work while the twins worked on
their college classes. In case it wasn’t
obvious, Miranda wasn’t at the first meeting because she and Jacob are away,
but she is on the committee; and we’ll be working with her at least as much as
we’ll work with Mom. Michael came home
with me again after the meeting, we did a Magi lesson with Mom, and then had
some music practice time that Ethan and Ehlana sat in on before we took care of
getting them tucked in for the night.
Michael and I had a short chat with Mom and Dad in the office after
that; and then Michael went home and I came up to my room to get started on my
studies and family business work. Using
so many time phases is starting to wear on my, but I did that again tonight
anyway so that I wouldn’t be awake until three or four o’clock.
My archive assignment for tonight really
would bore you unless you’d actually find a decades-long study in Magi
agriculture from a few millennia ago fascinating. The family business work was a bit
challenging because I was working on projects in Asia that require a lot of due
diligence while jumping through the political hoops that always slow down
progress. The language study time was
more fun with an entertaining internet chat, but since I couldn’t do that while
in a time phase; I kept that part of my studying fairly short.
Band and teen praise team practices resume
tomorrow, and we’ll be starting new study modules in our classes on Tuesday too;
so it’s time to wrap this up so that I can get some sleep and hopefully begin
to recharge my Magi batteries a bit. I
know that’s probably just wishful thinking, but it does work out for me now and
then, so let’s give it a try and I’ll let you know how it works out for me with
my next report.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
