We’re rolling into the last weekend of
July; and I’ve had a very busy day filled with a lot of work; with a bit of fun
tossed in here and there to keep the day from being complete drudgery.
Okay, that’s too strong a word, since I do
try to have fun with the work too, but all of the work does catch up to me now
and then; and that’s happened tonight – which is why I’m writing this now
instead of staying up even later and hanging out with Michael, Tim, and
Rowen. We’re camping by the river
tonight, and we have four junior campers with us; so there isn’t any co-ed
camping happening tonight – even though Naomi continues to find it funny to try
and ‘sneak’ into Ethan’s sleeping bag and then getting ‘caught’ by us and moved
back into the girls’ tent again with Ehlana.
What’s really funny there is that she’d stay with Ethan if we didn’t
catch her, and while that’s adorable; we should probably hold off on letting
them do that for at least another year or six – though I wouldn’t dream of
setting a specific age on co-ed sleepovers for them that could be used against
me with future family jokes! ;^)
Let’s back up and cover the news from the
start of my day. Tai Chi by the river at
sunrise was fun; and we had bonus exercise buddies because the Carringtons
joined us today; Brianna had me exercise with her because my usual exercise
buddy was working the breakfast shift at the Inn; and then we all had breakfast
together. That made for a fun start to
the day, but then it was time for me to get to work – starting with mowing the
lawn to get ahead on the weekend chores.
I had time to do that after helping Mom with the breakfast clean-up; and
then I needed to get cleaned up a bit before heading over to the school to
unload the truck with the fruit and vegetable boxes order for this month. We didn’t have as many sales this time as we’d
had the last two months, but that was entirely due to the lack of bonus orders
from holiday weekend visitors or travelers; and was expected.
We did still have hundreds of boxes to
unload, though; and then we were also loading cars, vans, and trucks with the
band member individual orders as they stopped in to get them – and then do
their deliveries. We also had a large
van to load for the Maple Valley student orders that two of their students
arranged and took care of this month; and I ended up spending a fair bit of the
afternoon at the school – especially when Michael took a shift helping out
during his afternoon break from the Inn.
While working with Michael was fun, it meant not having any down time
for him; and I headed home a bit early so that I could grab a shower and get
ready for my own dinner-to-close shift at the Inn. We ended up meeting there by the time I was
ready and he got away from the school; and then we got to work and kept busy
for the next five hours or so.
That blast of busy was more work and less
fun; I missed out on most of the Friday night family dinner and play fun; and
Michael and I were already well on the way to being exhausted by the time we
were set free from the Inn and came home to join the campfire already in
progress. Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and
Aiden had set up the camping night, and recruited Rowen and Tim to help them
with setting up the tents and joining us for the fun tonight; so that had been
a fun addition to our day – even though that didn’t include any Michael and me
alone time. I can’t say the same for
Rowen and Tim, since they’re still hanging out together somewhere as I’m
writing this; and likely having a lot more fun with some outdoors make-out
time. Michael’s been awake since an hour
or more before dawn, though, and my day didn’t start much later than that; so
we were okay with crawling into our tents instead of staying up and talking
with Rowen and Tim for another hour or two – and they were okay with going off
to find something else to do to stay entertained until they’re ready to sleep
too.
I’ve gotten ahead of the story and skipped
the campfire; so let’s back up and cover that before wrapping this up. The family and friends dinner and play night
was partly because Grandma and Grandpa are heading out on their summer work and
play trip tomorrow, and while I missed out on most of that; they did stay
long-enough after Michael and I got to the campfire for a visit with us before
heading home to get some sleep. They’ll
be on the road to the airport early; and away for the next four weeks. This is another example of what I miss out on
with the too-busy that is my life these days; since I’ve basically had no
involvement in that part of my grandparents’ lives – while it’s been a big part
of theirs while getting ready to spend a month on the road and away from their
house.
My visit with them was short, but then that’s
true for nearly everyone else at the campfire too; since they started heading
for home when Grandma and Grandpa did.
Michael and I did get to spend a bit of time with our parents, Jake,
Stephanie, Rebecca, Violet, and Dillon, though; and then we only had Rowen,
Tim, and our four junior campers for the last half-hour or so of the campfire
before Michael and Tim took care of putting it out while Rowen and I helped the
kids to get ready for bed. WE had all of
that finished by a bit after midnight; Michael and I sat on the benches by the
river with Rowen and Tim and talked for a half hour or so; and then we were
ready to call it a night while Rowen and Tim went for a walk. I’ll guess they’re at the park and making out
somewhere – unless there are too many other teen couples there trying to do the
same thing; but let’s not go there or I might be too tempted to sneak into
Michael’s tent and climb into his sleeping bag with him – even with his two
junior campers there with him! ;^)
That’s a fun thought; but isn’t going to
happen. Instead of going on about that,
though; let’s cover a bit of college teen news and then call it a night. While we still have between two and five
weeks to go before most of our collegians head off to school, Kyle and Carolyn
Landry are both at their college by now; and they’ll be getting right into
their respective training camps. That’s
football camp for Kyle; and a more general sports camp for Carolyn; since she’s
planning on playing multiple sports – if she can make the teams for every sport
she wants to play while she’s there.
Just as a side note, I have actually
thought about doing college sports before, and while that might be amazing, I
don’t want to get that kind of attention; and my education has to come first –
especially when I want to earn my PhD in five years. That’s news for another time, and I really am
too tired to go there tonight; so let’s wrap this up so that I can get some
sleep.
I’m mostly mentioning Carolyn’s departure
for college because we won’t have her on our team for the last two games of our
season – and possibly not for the championship game if we earn a spot for that
game – and she makes one of the college teams she’ll be trying out for over the
next few weeks. It’s also a reminder
that we’re quickly running out of time before Violet, Dillon, Jake, Stephanie,
Christina, and Josiah will all head back to college again; and then we’ll be
counting down to our return to school in September too.
We’re only half-way through the summer, and
I really don’t want to go there either tonight.
Getting some sleep is my immediate priority, and I’ll be okay if there
are some happy dreams waiting for me there with Michael in a starring role;
since we can’t be cuddling together instead.
Maybe we’ll see about a teen camping night for tomorrow night so that we
can do that – or maybe we can have a sofa sleepover if that won’t work. I’ll keep you posted on that with the next
update, but that’s all for tonight; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
