Football season has begun!
Some of the future Magi reading my journal
might wonder why I even bother being a cheerleader when I don’t write about the
sport like a fan at all, and that’s a valid point; since my cheerleading really
is to support Michael more than anything else.
Sure, Rowen and I do have fun most of the time too, but if Tim wasn’t a
football fanatic, and Michael didn’t play because he really likes playing
football with his best friend; then Rowen and I wouldn’t be cheerleaders.
Our boys are into the game, though; so
Rowen and I were at the school with time to spare ahead of the cheerleader
tryouts. The temperature was still in
the sixties as we got started; and we had a perfect weather day for both the
football camp and cheerleader tryouts.
Jenny is our team Captain this year, and even though Rowen and I will be
in Grade Eleven this year; it still felt a bit strange to have Jenny and Tammy
Morris as our senior cheerleaders this year.
Tammy, Rowen, and I don’t have any competition for our spots on the team
this year, but Shannon and Diana do; and we have six girls interested in
earning the Grade Nine spots. Emma
Norton is one of those Grade Nine girls, and I’m rooting for her; since I’d
like to have her on the squad with me.
As for the actual tryouts, Jenny pretty
much just followed the routine from last year.
We started out with a half-hour of warm-ups; had another half-hour of a
mostly-cardio workout; and then we worked on learning one of the half-time
routines from last year. That was mostly
about getting a look at the younger girls in action, and while there were a few
gymnastics-level moves in the routine; it wasn’t anything too difficult for any
of us to keep up with. We worked on that
until lunchtime; Jenny put us into two groups for that; and Rowen and I ended
up with half of the younger girls so that we could talk with them and answer
any questions they had so far to that point.
Our afternoon was split between finding out how versatile our
prospective cheerleaders are and working in groups to come up with new routines
for our squad. Jenny had me lead the
exercises to find out which of the girls could handle increasingly-difficult
gymnastics. We spent an hour doing that;
and then Rowen and I were again in charge of one group when we worked to come
up with new routine ideas.
Rowen and I haven’t done any of that this
year to get ready for tryouts, but we are pretty good at it; and tried our best
to help our little group with learning how to do that too. Having younger kids around in my family helps
too, and while Jenny and Tammy are more into targeting teens and young adults
with their routine ideas; I’m more family and kid-orientated with mine. Thankfully, it’s a good year for that; we
came up with an Elena of Avalor themed routine and another one using Zootopia
that included some sloth-related humor.
For the record, cheerleading at sloth speed
is tougher than you might think! ;^)
We wrapped up our day nearly an hour
earlier than the boys did, so Rowen and I sat on the bleachers and watched the
rest of the football workout while we waited for our boys. They were having a scrimmage; so we got to
have quite a bit of fun with that – especially since Michael and Tim were
having a blast out on the field. First
up, let’s talk about some of our favorite players. We didn’t have any doubt that Michael and Tim
would be back as wide receivers on offense and cornerbacks on defense. Lucas will have top spot at running back too,
and from what we saw today; I’d say that Reid Spencer already has the
quarterback spot locked up. Reid isn’t
actually on my personal list of favorite players, but he is for Michael and Tim
because he has good timing and accuracy with his throws to them. The three of them really put on a show today,
and with Lucas able to pile up yards on the ground too; they have a lot of
potential on offense this year.
I didn’t see a lot of surprises during the
scrimmage, but I’ll mention that Elliot Roberts is looking to replace J.J. as
team kicker; we have all of the returning players that are going into Grades
Eleven and Twelve; and there is a pretty good turnout of Grade Nine and Ten
boys. Let’s not comment on the niners,
since we won’t likely end up with more than one or two of them on the team; and
it’s a bit early in the camp to guess at that.
Reid is sure to get some of his classmates on the team with his this
year, and while I won’t pick favorites there either; I’ll suggest that Julian
Sparks was next-best to Reid during that scrimmage; and he’s obviously been
working with his older brother, Paul, on his football skills.
If he didn’t have a girlfriend right now, I
might be tempted to invite Jillian to a game or two this season, but the timing
is all wrong; so we’ll have to look at that another year.
Yes, that might be a hint about something
we see in our collective future; but I won’t go into any details about that
tonight.
Moving along, Rowen and I had to continue
waiting for Michael and Tim until they’d hit the showers and gotten cleaned up
before we could hang out together until dinnertime. We did that at Michael’s house; and then I
stayed to have dinner there. Rebecca
went out to the farm with Lucas after he was finished his practice, so it was
just four of us for dinner; and Michael and I enjoyed getting to spend that
time with his parents. After we cleaned
up, I needed to go home for a family business meeting, but before I did that; I
helped Michael out with a bit of healing so that he wouldn’t be sore in the
morning after a tough first day of football.
I’d have rather spent the evening with him, but we were overdue for a
future plans meeting – especially with back-to-school issues to discuss –
including for some of the high school seniors this year; and some of the
college students we’re helping in various ways.
Rebecca and Jenny were included in the chat
about our senior class this year; and I’ll be involved in that with them much
more this fall. It’s time to move beyond
nudges to actually getting a plan together for them – especially when they need
to write their SAT’s this fall; and decide on what they’ll take at college –
and where. That might seem like we’re
trying to run their lives – and the lives of other teens around here, but that
isn’t true; since what we’re really doing is trying to help make the future we
see easier for the people we care about most.
I won’t suggest that there aren’t times when the choices some of us will
make aren’t tough, but they will always be voluntary; and I am sure that my own
choices will be among the toughest.
Being one of the leaders for an ascension
of the light isn’t going to be all fun and games, so I’ll take the good parts
and be happy; since the bad parts are truly going to be hard on me.
I don’t really want to go there tonight
either; so let’s get back to the meeting.
We talked about the latest news from the
summer construction season, including the news from the work at the Inn. The top story this fall will be the start of
the construction for the third and final apartment building. That will begin the week after Labor Day; and
it will be ready to open by the end of next May. That’s convenient for some of our graduating
collegians, and with this apartment building being the only one being built
along the river; it’ll be very popular with the new group of young adults –
including Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon, Josiah, and Christina. Jake and Stephanie will be the only couple
needing a new home to come back to next May, but our other favorite collegians
will be coming home again over the next few years; and this building is mostly
meant for them as an interim home during the transition from college students
to young families.
That’s where the homes and townhouses in
the new section of town will come in, though in cases like Jake and Stephanie;
the transition is likely to be from living in an apartment to owning the family
home. It’ll be the younger kids in some
of our families that will need to look for other houses to by and live in –
though that won’t be true for me; since our family home will definitely be
Ethan’s when it’s his turn to take on that responsibility. That’s definitely getting a bit ahead of
things on our future plans; so I’ll try to get back on topic and stay there.
We don’t usually talk about my own future
plans much, but since I am going into Grade Eleven; it did come up at the
meeting tonight. There is still a bit of
time to get started on my plans, but one thing that is going to happen this
fall is that Aunt Leanne is going to start looking for property to invest in
for a townhouse project that will be reasonably close to the college I’ll be
attending. I guess it isn’t too early to
report that I’ll be going to our State college; since this part of my journal
won’t be opened up until years after I graduate from college anyway. There are two main reasons for why I will be
going to school there. The first is that
we’ll be within driving distance of home; and the second is that State has the
only program around here for Interpreters and Translators – along with the
languages department that is large-enough to allow me to take all of the
foreign languages I want to have too.
They have good programs for Rowen, Tim, and Michael too; but I’ll save
that news for sometime next year when it will be a bigger deal for us as we
collectively get ready for going off to college.
The search for land and the townhouses I
want built is mostly for our own needs; and we will need a home-away-from-home
for the five years we’ll be at college.
I have other reasons too, but that’s a longer-term part of the plan –
including for when Ethan, Ehlana, and some of our cousins and their friends all
go off to school too. That’s ten and
more years out, though; so we don’t need to go there either. I’ll keep you posted on that too; but don’t
expect any progress until we need to get going on that by sometime next
year. I won’t bore you with the details
for my college education and the rest of it; since we mostly just talked money
and about things I won’t need to really deal with until a year from now. There isn’t actually anything I need to do
right now – or at least there isn’t anything that I’m not already doing.
Being a top student in my year is important
– even if that is just a fiction we’re continuing to run with for my ‘public’ image. The cheerleading, bands, praise team, and
baseball are all important too – especially where I’m one of the leaders. Being in on the fund-raising for the band is
a bonus too; and I’ll need all of that on my resume for college – especially when
I want to be taken seriously about wanting to earn my PhD in just five years. I really don’t want to go on about that
tonight; so let’s keep going with the rest of the meeting news.
Mom had a lot of updates to cover for us;
with the highlights including news from the lab; updates on the progress for
the repatriation of the archives; and local news that included things like the
financials for the Solar-Wind Farm project.
Pretty much everything we’re doing is going as well or better than
planned, and while that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a lot of challenges; it
does mean that we’re collectively really good a dealing with all of our family
business and future plans issues.
The meeting wrapped up at ten because Dad
had work to get done; and I was good with that because it allowed me to get an
early start on my own family business work.
I took care of getting the twins tucked in for the night first; came up
to my room after that; and started working as soon as I was changed and tucked
into bed with Mandy. A time phase has
allowed me to get the work done in decent time; and I’ll be glad to have the
extra sleep so that it’s easier to keep up with day two of the cheerleading
tryouts. It’s been a good day, and I
hope that trend will continue all week.
That might not work out every day, since there is some rain in the
forecast for this week, but maybe we’ll get lucky; and it’ll only rain at
night. The famers around here really
want some rain, though; so I won’t complain if we get wet during our tryouts or
band practice.
Speaking of that, I should have mentioned
that the BMR crops being grown around here this year are doing great; and much
better than anything else. That’ll be
good for the lab – and for everyone as we expand our agricultural projects and
products. Ehlana’s doing other research
too, but most of those projects will take years more to develop – or even
decades for some of the ideas she has for the future. That’s going to be fun to watch, since I’ll
be too busy to help much; but then the lab is going to be just part of the
future plans for Magi around here; and we will eventually get everyone involved
in exploring and experimenting – whether that’s with our Magi talents; or in
other areas of our lives.
It’s been a long day, and I think I’ve
written myself into nap mode now; so let’s wrap this up so that I can get to
the sleeping part of my day. I was about
to write that I don’t have anything else to add; but do need to mention that
Tim did get his license today; and he did keep his Corvette close after that –
including driving it to Michael’s house with Rowen going along for the ride
while Michael and I walked home. We didn’t
go for rides with him too; but likely will sometime this week. He and Rowen were going to go for a longer
drive after dinner, but I haven’t heard about where they went or what they did
with their first chance to get out on their own beyond the usual restrictions
the non-driving teens have in our little town.
If I hear anything really good about that
at cheerleading practice tomorrow; I’ll let you know!
Okay, I think that’s it for today, and I
really am wiped out now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
