Cassie's Journal - August 31, 2016

The last hour of the month is winding down fast as I begin writing this report, and with it; the end of our summer holidays truly feels imminent.

As I think about that, I’m not at all sad about getting started on our school year.  There is a lot to look forward to with the start of our third year of high school.  Having Ethan and Ehlana at the school with us when they’re in Kindergarten in the mornings won’t really affect me much, but I am glad that we’ll be at the school at the same time for a couple of years before I head off to college.  What I’m really looking forward to with getting back to school is getting to spend time with Rowen and Tim every day again – and the rest of our friends.  Sure, that’s been better since football and cheerleading camps started, but we’re all still too busy doing our own things with work and other commitments to spend much extra time together.  Next week, we’ll have classes together every day; homework to do together whenever we can; and, hopefully, more chances to hang out together when we’re not all too busy to do that.  I’ll still have a crowded schedule, but need to work on that too; so we’ll see what I can do about making a bit more time for having fun with Michael and our friends this year.

Don’t laugh – it could happen! ;^)

Okay, I don’t want to be awake doing this for long; so let’s get to the news of the day.

We’ve had a decent weather day, and while we did have a sprinkle or two of rain and a couple of cloudy hours this morning and afternoon; it was a nice summer day for outdoor fun.  For me, that included Tai Chi by the river; cheerleading practice all morning; and a play and work afternoon.  I don’t have anything newsworthy to write about from the home and cheerleading time, but we had our lunch break with Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, and the kids; brought the food with us; and had a nice visit that included getting to have some cuddle time with Faith while her Mom and Dad got to enjoy another catered meal.  I do mean that about catered meals; and their family and friends have been taking turns do that for them this week.  That has the added bonus of keeping the visits to small groups that are spread out a bit; while still giving them time without gangs of visitors around.

That has partially ended today, since Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan are here now; and will be staying through the holiday weekend.  I haven’t seen them yet, but they were on the way here by lunchtime; and would’ve been here in time for dinner.  My baseball practice was the main reason why I didn’t see them; though they didn’t go to the park to watch the co-ed practice either because they got to babysit Faith instead while Uncle Mark went to that practice; took Caleb with him; and they all let Aunt Grace have a nap that she needed a lot by then.

I’m not skipping the afternoon news; so let’s back up and cover that.  Mom and I took care of the lunch clean-up at the Everett’s house; we rounded up some cousins and friends on the way home; and then I split my afternoon between helping Mom with kid control and chores.  We now know for sure that most of the out-of-town Proctor and Rice clans will be here for sure for the weekend; and we get the Rice family at our house while Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne take the Proctors so they’ll be next door to Faith.

By the way, I’m sure that the Everetts will be in for an entire series of jokes that will be centered around having Grace and Faith in their family and home – not to mention that they’ll have Mercy too whenever Grandma’s in the house!  I love it that they’re carrying on that tradition for daughters that goes back generations with Grandma Mercy’s side of the family.

Moving along, we played at the park for an hour; went for a swim after that; and then I helped about half of the kids to play in the gardens with me to help with getting them ready for the weekend.  That was mostly some weeding and watering the plants; with the watering part of the job turning into a water fight that also helped with hosing the kids down after they got dirty from the work.  We went for another swim after that; the kids had a snacks and drinks break in the sunroom; and I helped out with making dinner while Ethan and Ehlana took care of entertaining our cousins with help from Naomi and Aiden.  We kept most of the kids for dinner; I helped out with kid control while we ate and then took care of the clean-up; and then it was time to split up for our baseball practices at the school and park.

Rowen picked me up for that; we had a long final practice with our team; and then we met up with Michael and Tim at the park; brought a handful of kids home with us; and went swimming while Mom and Dad went to Sheldon’s for a drink with some of their team mates and other friends.  For all of the parents of the kids we had with us, that really was just for one drink and a bit of fun; and then they came back here and either collected their kids and went home or went into the office and got started on their work homework.  Ehlana and Ethan kept Naomi and Aiden, but they also went to bed then – though they all hung out in Ehlana’s room for a while first.

Tim and Rowen went home to her house then too, but Michael stayed for a while; and we had a minor make-out session in the lounge before he needed to go home and get some sleep.  I really wanted to keep him tonight, but needed to do some family business work instead; and picked being responsible over having fun.

That just proves that a Magi Master can be both brilliant and an idiot! ;^)

Let’s not dwell on that; or I’ll be tempted to sneak down the back stairs and over to Michael’s house.

After I saw Michael out, I came up to my room and got ready for bed – starting with a soak in my Jacuzzi.  The only way to do that and all of the work without staying awake most of the night was to use a time phase; so I did that and multi-tasked the tub time with the family business work.  That is always tough to do after a long, busy day, but I did get the work done; and will still be sleeping before September starts – if I don’t drone on while writing this update.

I can skip the non-news that I haven’t written about yet and don’t need to take another look at the near-future when you can flip a digital page to find out what happens next as you read this in my more-distant future; so I guess that I can wrap this up right now and head off to dreamland.

Hopefully our September will be as much fun as August has been – though I’d be okay if we can do that with a bit less work – as unlikely as that suggestion is for becoming a reality in my life.  No work or even being conscious is an option for my immediate future, though, and I’m ready to go there; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - August 30, 2016

I’m totally wiped out right now; so here’s a micro-update before I crash for the night.

Tai Chi by the river and breakfast were good; cheerleading practice for the rest of the morning was fun; and then I spent the afternoon helping out with some chores around the house and kid control while Michael was busy with football all day.  My afternoon play time included a long swim with a handful of kids and some parents and tweens after an hour of too-hot fun at the park playground.  I was off to marching band practice after that, and while we did get a dash or two of rain; we dodged the thunderstorms today.

We worked a bit harder with the marching band to get ready for our first home game, and that’s a big deal for our Maple Valley members; since we’re playing against their team this week.  The longer band practice meant another late start to our teen praise team practice, but we needed to do a full run-through of the Sunday service too; so that put us even later getting done with our practices for the night.  By then, Michael was worn out, so I only stopped in at his house long-enough to help him with a bit of Magi-powered healing; and then I came home for the night instead of hanging out with him for a while.

I had a visit with Mom and Dad after that in the office; took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night; and then got to work on the family business while enjoying some quality Jacuzzi action while in a time phase.

That all adds up to be being exhausted; there isn’t anything major to report that can’t wait for my next update; and I’m already half-asleep anyway; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - August 29, 2016

Congratulations, Aunt Grace, Uncle Mark, and the rest of our collective family – it’s a girl!

Welcome to the family, Faith Anne Everett!

Faith was born at five twenty-two in the morning; weighed in at eight pounds, two ounces; and arrived with a Magi-powered mental blast that was very impressive for such a sweet, adorable little bundle of joy.  I’ll add that part of our perception of that was due to fatigue, and Faith isn’t as strong as other Magi kids like Naomi and Brianna; but she is still a very strong Magi – something quite interesting when you consider that she’s descended from a mother and grandfather that each did not inherit the Magi abilities.  We do know that happens now and then, but this makes twice with one non-Magi mother; so Caleb and Faith will be worth keeping an eye on as they grow up.

She is adorable, and while I didn’t get to spend much time with her; we did have a fun little cuddle.  I didn’t try any mental connection of any kind with her so that she didn’t get overwhelmed by that, but Aunt Leanne helped Caleb with an empathic link with his new sister; and that’s part of the new program Mom has worked up that she is sure will help Magi siblings to have a better relationship with each other.  That, by the way, is something that she thinks that Dad and Aunt Leanne did on their own without knowing it at the time; and she thinks that there is a connection between that kind of bonding or lack of it when looking at other sibling relationships that we know of from around town.

That’s getting this update a bit off-track; so let’s get back to the story.

The last hour or so of Aunt Grace’s labor was tough for her, for Faith, and for those of us helping out with either the physical or mental needs of the delivery.  Faith was stressed out for quite a while after she was with us in the ‘real’ world; so I needed to keep my wards up for more than an hour before she was ready to settle down and get some sleep.  By then, it was time to get kids fed; I needed to go home and get ready for cheerleading practice; and I eventually made it to the school in time for that – after one more quick stop at the clinic to make sure that everything was still okay there.  The parents had some grandparent support by then, so I wasn’t needed for babysitting; but that was a job I helped out with a lot today once I was done with cheerleading at noon.

My cheerleading practice was a bit too easy, and while that makes Jenny a very popular Captain; our work ethic is definitely a bit light this year so far.  I won’t complain about that today, since I was tired and didn’t really feel all that motivated to push hard all day; but practicing like this will affect our cheerleading a bit – if only with how detailed we can make our sideline and half-time routines.  Maybe we need to do that when keeping up with marching band too, but I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going for us; and I hope we’ll still do our part to entertain the spectators at all of the games!

Jenny wrapped up our practice by a quarter-to-twelve; so I had time to get home and help Mom with making lunch for a small gang of parents, grandparents, and kids.  We hosted both the lunch and dinner meals today for the family and some friends; so I did a fair bit of cooking and cleaning to go along with my afternoon and evening babysitting gigs.  I had some help for all of that work; though the doctors and nurse in the family were busy all day at the med center; and the parents were either working too; busy with a new baby; or helping Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace.  I had some grandparent support in the afternoon; Rowen joined us for a couple of hours at the park followed by a swim in the river and ice cream snack break; and Michael was with me from the time he was finished his baseball practice until he went home at ten o’clock so that he could get some sleep and be ready for football again in the morning.

He helped out with kid control while I was busy in the kitchen with Mom and the other dinner-cooking volunteers; we had a gang of kids with us by the river while we all ate that meal; and then we were both on clean-up duty while the parents and grandparents kept up with the kids for a while.  After that, we had another trip to the park for some more playground action; one more, fairly short swim; and then a communal bedtime snack at nine o’clock before parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents took kids home for the night.  The kid exchange included Caleb, Leah, and Sebastian – mostly because their parents were wiped out from a night with no sleep; and Zack went home with Grandma and Grandpa because they’ve missed their grandkids while they’ve been away – and possibly because he was still bouncing off the walls while Aunt Leanne and Brianna were both ready to go home and off to sleep.

I didn’t get to do that, but Michael and I helped with the post-snack clean-up; we took care of getting the twins tucked in for the night; and then we had a front-porch kind of goodnight hug and kisses moment before Michael went home for the night.  I really wanted to keep him for a sofa sleepover, but had work to do too; and didn’t think that I’d get that done if he stayed.  It would be nice to say that we’d be too busy having a make-out session instead, but it’s much more likely that we’d have simply fallen asleep instead.  That would be nice too, but the work needed to be done; so that’s what I did once I was ready for bed and tucked in with Mandy and my computer.

Exhaustion has been a problem since then, but I still used a time phase when I had even more work than expected waiting for me via email.  I won’t bore you with the details, but I did get everything done, and once I’ve finished this report; it’ll be time to crash and nap until morning.

While I didn’t mention it yet, Aunt Grace and Faith are home tonight, and while that’s mostly thanks to Uncle Adam and Mom helping them out a bit; nobody else will know that – or find out just how much Aunt Grace was helped with recovering from a tough delivery.  I’ll keep you posted on how they’re doing, but they are both very healthy; and we’ll have to wait and see whether Faith is one of those good, quiet babies; or she’ll want to party all night with her Mommy and Daddy.  I hope to get to spend some time with her over these next few weeks, but I won’t hold my breath of that; since I am going to be very busy as we head back to school next week.

Before I go, though, I’d better mention that Faith’s birth means that we’ll have the family home for the holiday weekend.  That’s a change in plans for the Rice clan, but this will be their best chance to see her before Thanksgiving, and while Violet and Chris can’t be here too; we’ll have the rest of them here.  Aunt Grace’s family will be coming too, and I expect that Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan will come here early.  I’ll keep you posted on that too; and I expect those plans will be nailed down by sometime tomorrow – especially since Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace will not be allowed to have a house full of guests while dealing with their new baby.  We have room at the other family houses, though, so it won’t be a problem.

Okay, I’ve had enough fun for tonight.  There is sure to be more babysitting for me tomorrow, and with cheerleading, marching band, and teen praise team practices too; I’ll need all of the sleep I can get.  It’s been a fun, sometimes crazy ride today; and I’m sure we’ll have more of the same for at least the rest of this week now.  That might mean I’ll be tired a lot too, but it’ll all be fun; and I’m looking forward to everything – even if my vision is a bit blurred right now.  Getting started on my nap will help with that little problem, though; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - August 28, 2016

This journal update is coming to you from the waiting room at the medical center.  I’m surrounded by sleeping kids; and the parents are busy with various jobs while we all wait for Aunt Grace to give birth to the newest member of our family.  I’ll get to the rest of that story-so-far in a minute; but let’s go back to the start of my day and start the rest of this recap from there.

My wake-up call came earlier than I’d have liked when Brianna needed a diaper change and some cuddle and chat time while drinking a bottle about an hour before dawn.  That was fun, but I didn’t get even a real nap in last night – just some light rest where I was half-conscious and mentally drifting along while Brianna quietly entertained me until it was time to get up for Tai Chi by the river.  I had Brianna with me for that too, so that helped to get the day off to a great start; and then it was time to get busy through until we got to church with our gang of campers and all of the parent-volunteers that helped to make doing that possible.

This time, my jobs included kid control; getting all of the younger girls fed and ready for church; and we helped out with the campground tear-down too – a job that happened as we went along because there were thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon and we didn’t want to leave that work for after lunch.  Rowen was with me for most of the girl-time; and we had Michael and Tim with us to help out with the kids during breakfast.  That meal was a bit of a work overload for the parents, but Mom and Dad did get lots of help; and it’s amazing how many pancakes and sausages you can cook up in an hour when you have enough hands at the task – and can use the barbeques and a half-dozen electric griddles and frying pans in addition to the stove and oven.  I really am glad that Mom put me on kid control, and while that was just as much work for those of us with that job; we definitely had more fun playing dress-up and doing hair and make-up with our girls than the parents had with the clean-up from feeding half the kids and teens in town.

Okay, it wasn’t half; but we did have more than fifty at breakfast – including the parents.

Even the walk to church was fun this morning, and since we picked up friends and neighbors along the way; we practically had a parade by the time we reached the church.  Maybe all of that fun was the start of things for getting to where I am right now, but Aunt Grace was actually looking really great during that walk; and she was in a great mood too after a kid-free night – or as close as she could get to having that while this close to delivering their baby. ;^)

I can admit that welcoming a new cousin to the family wasn’t even remotely on my mind this morning, and while we enjoyed the service and Sunday school; my focus was already more on the imminent shift at the Inn – and spending the day with Michael – than on anything else.  With just a week to go in our summer holidays, we were expecting a big crowd for lunch and the buffets today; and our customers didn’t disappoint us on that.  The new student-employees are coming along, and that’s helping a lot, but we still have more seating space than the staff to keep up with everything right now; so we all need to work harder to keep up.  The church service wasn’t a long one today, and that helped to give us more time to get ready for the lunch rush; but it was almost all work after that for me – except for the afternoon break that Michael and I took together once the clean-up was finished from the lunch crowd.

That break was also the only chance I’ve had to see Grandma and Grandpa today.  They didn’t get home until shortly before Michael and I needed to be back at the Inn for the buffet prep work, so even that visit was too-short; but I am glad that they’re home safely and had a fun adventure.  I haven’t written about their trip this time, and don’t expect to include any of their travel stories in my journal, but they have their own journals; and their storytelling will be better than my second-hand recaps could ever be anyway.  I don’t know how much time I’ll get to spend with them this week, but I’ll also add that they aren’t here at the med center tonight because they’re jet-lagged and need the sleep more to start getting back on home time again.

Not only have I missed out on the first round of storytelling from Grandpa today while I’ve been working; I missed out on the family buffet at the Inn fun too.  The jokes are already flying around here that it was the buffet that put Aunt Grace into labor, and I’m sure that Miranda and Jacob will find that amusing when they hear about it tomorrow.  Jacob, by the way, will not be able to hear the entire story; and we’ll likely keep most of the Magi-related jokes in the family anyway.  I don’t plan on investigating whether buffets at the Inn have an impact on pre-natal Magi power development, but if Ehlana really wants to do that; she’s welcome to go for it!

This does seem like a good spot to take a side-trip; so let’s do that and talk about the Magi gift in relationship to the Proctor family.

Mom and I were not surprised to see that Zack and Brianna are strong Magi, or that Leah and Sebastian are strong too; considering how talented their parents are – though that is especially true for Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne.  We are surprised with Caleb and our about-to-arrive cousin, though; and that does seem to be something that has changed in our family.  Yes, Mom’s pre-natal program makes a difference for all newborns, but this is more than that; and could be part of the changes that will come naturally as we move toward the Ascension of the Light.  That is something we’ll research, though I doubt I’ll be involved in that very much; since I’ll be too busy with other responsibilities.

Getting back to the news of the day, Michael and I were back to work in time to help with the pre-buffet action in the kitchen; and our break time after that was very limited as we all struggled to keep up with having a full house plus extras two times over with the buffets.  We didn’t really serve every person within fifty miles of the town, but by the time we were done; it sure felt like it.  While I missed the family time today; I’m not missing out on the most-important family adventure of the day – even if some of us are missing out on getting some sleep.  I’m also missing the sofa sleepover I wanted to have with Michael.  He came home with me after we closed the Inn, and I had every intention of keeping him with me all night, but then the call came in about Aunt Grace less than an hour after we got home; and I needed to send Michael home so that I could help out here at the clinic.

I would have liked to have Michael with me, but that wasn’t an allowed option; and he needs to get some sleep too so he’ll be ready for football practice in the morning.  After seeing him out, I grabbed a quick shower and got changed; helped out with getting kids from three families to the med center; and then played with the kids that were awake while watching the sleeping kids and helping out with the wards around the clinic.  We’d considered putting the kids all at one house and having me stay there, but while Uncle Mark is handling the delivery and Aunt Grace is busy for obvious reasons; Mom, Uncle Adam, Aunt Deborah, and Aunt Leanne are all needing to help out with the baby.  Having me handle the wards makes it a bit easier for them; and we – the kids – all want to be here anyway.

Being allowed to do that is a change from the norm around here with Magi kids, but we still have more to do on that; since I couldn’t invite Michael or Rowen; and most Magi kids won’t get to know about any of my cousins’ talents until they’re eighteen.

Going through what has been hours of labor already has been tough on Aunt Grace – and on most of us; since we didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.  We still have some time before the baby will be here, but I’m writing this update now because I’ve had time to get some work done while the kids are sleeping; and I’ll need to put my computer away when it’s closer to the time for the last big push to delivery.  When we get there, I’ll need to focus on my wards – and keeping my younger cousins safe from the mental blasts that are inevitable from a strong baby Magi.

By the way, yes, we know the baby’s name, but I’m saving that news for my next update – even though that’s a bit silly for a journal that Magi can read in batches in my future.  I’m not trying to wrap this up to get sleep that I can’t have while using my gifts for the wards and shields here; so let’s take a quick look at the week ahead.

We’re obviously going to have a new member added to our family by sometime Monday morning; and then I’ll likely be trying to get through my day – and cheerleading practice – on no sleep.  We’ll have football and cheerleading every day this week; the rest of my music and sports practices; and a very busy start to the holiday weekend that is going to include the next batch of fruit and vegetable boxes deliveries on Friday in addition to the second football game of the season on Friday night.  I’ll try to help Mom out with the ongoing holiday weekend prep work too, and I may need to help out with more kid control if my aunts and uncles need it while helping Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace with the new baby.

That has me thinking about baby showers, and I should mention that my lack of comments on baby showers in our family is all about the fact that we haven’t had many of them.  We do get gifts for the new parents and babies, but while we’re happy to help out other new parents around here; we don’t have baby showers for parents that don’t need the financial help.  Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace have both done fairly-well for themselves in the years before they got married; and they definitely don’t have to worry about money now either.  I’m only mentioning this to explain why you don’t hear about things like that with me, and while that’s sometimes because I’m not involved in those events; that isn’t the case here.

That brings us up to next weekend in the look ahead, but there isn’t a lot for me to write about with that; since I expect to be working nearly all of the time except for while I’m playing ball in the championship game and when I’m cheering for Mom, Dad, and their team in the co-ed championship game.  I’ll probably miss Michael’s game while helping out at the Inn; but I’ll keep you posted on that; since I might be able to work that into my schedule.  Michael and I also have the Sunday service that the teen praise team will be leading; and I expect to be working the rest of the time either at the Inn or helping out with the fundraiser booth at the park for the marching band.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gone there when I’m this tired; since now I’m thinking sleepy thoughts.  That isn’t an option, though; so I’d better wrap this up and see about getting a cup of coffee to help with staying awake.

I’m heading toward twenty-four hours of being awake now, and it’ll be at least eight or ten more before I can think about having a nap, but I’ll be busy most of that time; and this next few hours will be fun!

Feel free to flip the digital page to find out all about my newest cousin, but I’m going to go and get that cup of coffee now, and then wait for that to happen in real time; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!