Happy Valentine’s Day!
Congratulations to Nadine and Malcolm –
they’re engaged!
I’ll back up to the news from last night in
a moment; but let’s begin this update with that fun bit of family news. Malcolm proposed to Nadine last night
sometime after midnight so that it was Valentine’s Day when he asked her to be
his Valentine forever. While nobody in
the Johnson family is surprised that they’re going to get married; Malcolm did
apparently do a good job pulling off the Valentine’s Day surprise for his new fiancée;
and she is very happy today. No wedding
details are yet available; so I’ll keep you posted when we hear that news.
My Saturday night wasn’t engagement
celebration kind of fun, but we did have a good night while babysitting; and
Michael and I did have our sofa sleepover too.
After my nap yesterday afternoon, I got right to work ahead of the first
arrivals of incoming kids. Rowen and Tim
joined me shortly after Naomi and Aiden were dropped off; and we were on the go
from that point on through until Mom and Dad got home from the pub and some of
the kids were picked up by their parents.
I’m not going to cover every detail tonight, since while we had a good
night; it wasn’t a lot different than most of our babysitting adventures.
Once we had all of the kids; Rowen and I
cooked up dinner. We made hotdogs,
chicken nuggets, and a couple of pans full of fries that the kids – and Tim –
demolished; followed by Olde Bakery desserts that were just as enthusiastically
devoured. It was play time after that –
or after the clean-up was done for some of us; and Michael caught up with us to
help with that once he was finished for the night at the Inn. Our mission was to run the kids until they
dropped, and while we succeeded; it was at the expense of running ourselves
until we were ready to drop. That’s why
the good news that was my sofa sleepover with Michael was also not as much fun
as I’d hoped when we ended up cuddling with Brianna after having all of the
other kids in beds and sleeping; and then she and I fell asleep while Michael,
Rowen, and Tim stayed awake until Mom and Dad got home.
I didn’t wake up, but pictures were taken
before Brianna was taken away and put to bed after a diaper change and cuddle
time with Mom; which is why Michael was left with me in the lounge and everyone
else eventually went to bed too. Mom and
Dad were nice enough to pretend that they didn’t know that Rowen snuck into Tim’s
room for the night once they were both ready for bed and we were down to just
the kids and teens that were staying for the sleepover; and I only know that
happened because Rowen told me all about it while we were getting ready for
church after breakfast. That’s because they
were awake before Michael and I were thanks to an early-riser kid that they
heard before Michael and I did; but our wake-up call came soon after they’d
split up and Rowen had gone to take care of Brianna. Mom had beaten her there, but that first wake-up
call spread quickly; and then the parents and teens in the house were all busy
as we worked together to get everyone fed; we took turns getting ready for
church; and added in some Valentine’s Day fun to the mix – including some gift
exchanges and themed breakfast food and drinks.
Michael and I exchanged gifts this morning
too, and that was fun; but not as entertaining as Ethan and Naomi and Aiden and
Ehlana were when the boys had gifts for their Valentines. Brianna had quite a few gifts from her favorite
people too; though her parents didn’t do that with her – and with Zack – until they
came over shortly before we all left for church. It was still cold this morning, so we drove
to church and needed some parental support for that to get all of us there; and
the Valentine’s Day service was really great too – especially the duet that
Michael and I sang as part of the musical entertainment before going to our
Sunday school class. Today, most of the
teens were drafted to help out with the younger kids and we had a blast making
Valentines with them. Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I were put with the pre-school class; so we got to do that with
Ethan, Ehlana, and Aiden; but Naomi was in with the Kindergarten class so we
didn’t have her with us too.
My day was not all partying and fun after
that because Michael and I were on-duty for the three special Valentine’s Day
buffets that Miranda and Jacob put on at the Inn. The first was at noon, so we’d needed to
hurry there as soon as we were set free from Sunday school to help out with
getting that ready to go on time. The
second buffet was at three-thirty, and the third at six-thirty; the timing for
the last two a small, experimental change to see if it would work out better or
not for both the work and the flow of crowds in and out of the dining
room. I didn’t really see any of that
action from the kitchen, but it did seem to help as far as having an easier
time covering breaks for the staff during the lulls at each work station –
whether that was earlier for the prep line workers or later for the dishwashers
and busboys.
Michael and I had as much as was possible
while helping to feed six or seven hundred people and then cleaning up the mess
that came with doing that. Rebecca and
Jenny helped with providing some of that entertainment as they told us about
their Saturday night fun. For Rebecca,
that was spending the night at Lucas’ house while they stayed with his brother
and sister for the evening; and Jenny had a hot date with Peter that didn’t end
until he went home again after going to church with her. We took breaks between each of the buffets;
but did our weekend homework during the first one and just wanted to do nothing
but rest up during the second one.
I missed out on the buffet dinner with my
family when they all came to the Inn for the last buffet, but Dad worked most
of the afternoon; so I didn’t; miss much at home while I was working at the
Inn. We stayed until all of the work was
done and Miranda and Jacob were ready to head home for the night; and then
Michael and I had a bit of wind down cuddle time at his house before I went
home – getting there at a bit before ten-thirty. Dad was wrapping up his work and packing for
his trip in the morning; so I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in
after they’d studied for a while after they got home from the buffet. That was fun, and it was great to hear all
about their play afternoon with their Valentines that was way more fun than I
had with my work. Mom skipped my Magi lesson,
so after saying goodnight to them; I came up to my room and got to work.
Using a time phase for my work was not a
good idea because of how tired I am; but I pushed the limits anyway so that I
could get my work and studying done without staying up half the night. The bad news is that I’ve worn myself out; so
getting everything done doesn’t feel that great. I’ll talk things over with Mom tomorrow
sometime; but I really am going to need to cut back for a while – even if that
means getting some help for a month or two.
I can’t burn out at fifteen – there’s a lot I’m supposed to do over the
next five or ten decades; so I’d better learn to pace myself sooner instead of
later.
For right now, I’ll settle for going to
sleep now, and that’s all the news I have for today anyway; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
