This report is coming to you from one of
the girls’ tents by the river in our back yard.
With just over a week left to go in our summer holidays, I’ll be honest
and admit that I’d rather be having another co-ed camping adventure with
Michael; but that isn’t an option when we literally have dozens of kids with us
– including my brother, sister, cousins, and a lot of their little
friends. I’m already getting the story
for the day out of order, though, so let’s back up and start at the beginning.
My morning plans for Tai Chi and breakfast
at home changed when Michael called and asked for help at the Inn. I was happy to help out, and had fun working
with Michael, Jacob, and Miranda; but that did mean messing up the start to my
chores part of the day – and we had a lot to get done today to get ready for
the holiday weekend. That also meant
that I’ve pretty much worked all day – if you include the babysitting as work
too. I got home again from the breakfast
shift at nine-thirty; got right to work on mowing the lawn and the rest of my
chores; and worked at them until three o’clock except for a short break to eat
a sandwich and drink a bottle of water.
Then it was time to set up the tents and get ready for the camping part
of our adventure in babysitting.
I had about an hour to do that, because I
needed to be at the Inn for my scheduled dinner shift so that I could help out
while Michael was at his ball game, but Mom and Dad had teen help from some of
the other babysitters tonight – including Rowen and Jessica. We really do have a major camping event going
on here tonight, and while not all of the teens are babysitting too; we do have
at least one babysitter for every two or three kids. We had eight tents set up by the time I
needed to hit the shower and get ready for work; and then I was on the run
again and off to the Inn to help with the dinner prep work. There was some end-of-season baseball dinners
going on at the Inn tonight too, but Mom and Dad weren’t in on that because we
had family and friends barbecue at our house instead. It would have been great to be there for it,
but that wasn’t an option, and if I hadn’t been working; I’d have been at the
park for Michael’s game anyway.
The start of our dinner rush was more of a
flood of customers; and that was almost entirely due to the one blast of bad
weather that we had today – a thunderstorm that rolled through town starting a
half-hour or so after I got to the Inn.
For some reason, we had quite a few people decide to stop in to eat
while getting out of the rain too; though I don’t think we ended up with many
extra customers – they just stopped to eat a bit earlier than planned. While that was true, the sports dinner
parties ahead of the fun at Sheldon’s didn’t get started until six-thirty so
that store owners could join in for that fun if they wanted to do that with
their team mates.
By the way – yes, the rain affected the
barbeque at my house, but they didn’t eat until six-thirty either; so the only
change to the plan was that they ate indoors instead of outside – and the rain
had mostly moved on by the time Dad and the other grillmasters needed to get to
work.
Michael’s game was delayed too, but he was
still at the park on time, and while the ball diamond was a bit damp; it wasn’t
bad-enough to cancel the games tonight.
I did hear that there were two of the three o’clock games that were
shortened due to the imminent thunderstorm, but they were far-enough into those
games to call winners too. I won’t bore
you with second-hand details from Michael’s game, but the fifteen-to-four
victory for his Werewolves team over the Ghouls should give you a pretty good
idea of how well Michael and Tim did today.
Tim was motivated too; since he doesn’t like losing – even when it’s
after a big football win that would give them a good reason for being too tired
to play a good baseball game.
I worked at the Inn until Michael was
finished his game; he came straight to the Inn; and then he stayed to work
until close while I got home to start in on my babysitting job. Mom and Dad were already getting ready to go
out; and Rowen and Tim were in charge of the kids and junior babysitters while
they – and most of the parents – were busy doing that. The campfire had been set up too; but we didn’t
start it until shortly before nine o’clock.
Instead of doing that, we played tag with the kids; and everyone playing
had glow sticks, bracelets, or other options so that we could find each other
as it became dark outside. I had a
handicap in that game while running around with Brianna in my arms, but we had
a blast; and the snuggles, giggles, and kisses were worth the effort – even though
we rarely tagged anyone without getting help from kids and teens willing to ‘let’
Brianna tag them.
By the time we sat down for the campfire, I
was ready for a nap. That wasn’t an
option, but I did get to have more cuddle time with Brianna – and we both
cuddled with Michael for parts of the night after he joined us at a bit after
ten o’clock. We also took turns playing
my guitar and leading the campfire songs; but Brianna was happy to cuddle with
Ehlana and Naomi for a while; Rowen had a turn with her too; and then Michael
and I had her during the toddler-rated scary campfire stories that Tim and
Lucas told the kids right before we took a break to get our most-junior campers
ready for bed and tucked in for the night at eleven-thirty.
That last bit of news seems far too
clinical for the fun we had, but that says more about how tired I am than
anything else; and all you really need to know is that we’ve had one of those
really good nights here – even with all of the babysitting work that has gone
along with the entertainment. The work
and fun can co-exist, and if you doubt me; try having a campfire with a lot of
kids and teens; add a dirty, fragrant diaper to the mix; and let the fun begin!
;^)
Sorry, Brianna, but you have a pretty good
memory too; so you’ll likely remember this anyway – even without the help of my
journal to remind you. The good news for
you with this little moment in your life is that I’m sure that our family will
collectively have much better stories to tell about you than this one in the
future. Then again, Mom does still
occasionally bring up that story about me trying to change my own diaper every
now and then; so I could be wrong about that!
Moving along, once we had the youngest
campers tucked in, and most of them were sleeping; it was time to get to work
on putting the next batch of kids to bed.
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden were among those kids; and Rowen and I
were two of the babysitters getting the girls ready for bed. The campfire rolled on without us while we
were busy; and it was twelve-thirty by the time we could rejoin Michael, Tim,
the rest of the teens, and the older kids and tweens for more music and some
scarier stories. We stayed around the
fire until one-thirty; doused it then; and then we all started to take turns
getting ready for bed too. Rowen took a
gang of girls up to my room to take turns using the bathrooms on the third
floor while I stayed and kept an eye on the sleeping kids; I took a turn once I
had babysitting relief; and then a group of us teens sat by the river to wind
down and talk until nearly a half-hour after Mom and Dad got home.
They stopped by to say goodnight and make
sure that all was well, but then they left us to our work and headed for
bed. We didn’t get the party report yet,
but it did sound as though they had fun too.
I’ll also mention that my parents were not two of the designated drivers
tonight, and while they don’t ever drink too much; it was nice to see them get
a break from all of the responsibility for a few hours and even get chauffeured
home from their night out!
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I weren’t the
first to head for our tents, but we weren’t the last either – mostly because
some of the teen couples were still too busy with some moonlit make-out
time. I’d have been okay with taking
Michael somewhere to do that too, but we really aren’t into doing that kind of
thing in public; so we’ll have to find another time for that kind of fun.
We tell ourselves that far too often, but
it’s the way it is for us; and we’ll survive.
Once Rowen and I were in our tent with
Ehlana, Naomi, and Brianna, we got into our sleeping bags; Rowen fell asleep
about ten minutes later; and I’ve been doing my bedtime computing while
everyone else has been sleeping. A bit
of family business work came up that I’ve dealt with too, but I’ve mostly been
doing the usual bedtime computing and this report. There’s a good chance that I’ll regret
staying up this late when I’m working another full Sunday shift at the Inn tomorrow,
but to family business work wasn’t something I wanted to leave undone either;
and it has just been that kind of day anyway so I’m not surprised at how it is
ending.
The key word there is ‘ending’ and that’s
what I need to be doing with this report.
Our wake-up call is going to be very early; we have a major gang to feed
and get ready for church; and that’s only the start of my day. While I will be tied up with work, Grandma
and Grandpa are also getting home from their trip too; so it is going to be a
busy family day as well. I can write
about all of that tomorrow, though, and you can flip a digital page to read all
about it whenever you’re doing that in my future; so let’s just wrap this up
and I’ll get started on my nap. It’s
been fun, but it’s time for me to run – or stop running for a while; so, until
next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
