Happy 11th Birthday, Jaimie!
Other than sending a gift and a breakfast
phone call to wish her a happy day, we didn’t have any involvement in Jamie’s
birthday; and I don’t have any other news to report from her today either –
mostly because she was likely having too much fun with her friends to email me
with the birthday report yet. I will
mention that birthdays with Jaimie and Kaitlyn feel different for me than for
any of our other cousins now that they’re edging into the tween years; since it
doesn’t seem very long ago that they were closer to Ethan and Ehlana’s current
age – or Jayden’s.
Next thing you know, it’ll be Uncle Blaine’s
turn to worry about his little girls hanging out with the local boys around
here whenever they’re visiting for holidays and vacations! ;^)
I’ve had enough fun in my day, if not
birthday party kind of excitement, but it’s been a long, tough day too; so let’s
move this along so that I can get to nap mode sooner instead of even later than
it already is now.
Tai Chi by the river was chilly again; I’ve
already mentioned the only breakfast highlight; and we were kept busy in our
classes all day. Some of our studies
every day now seem to be linked to the presidential elections, and while I
would really prefer to ignore the entire circus; that apparently isn’t going to
be an option. today, for instance, we
spent a bit of time on the math and systems used for post-debate analysis in
Algebra and Computer classes; the debate last night came up in our Spanish
class; and we spent some time in English class learning all about the bad
habits that crop up in modern debates.
We did not, however, talk politics at all during Phys-Ed; which could be
why that’s one of my favorite classes so far this year! ;^)
I didn’t get to have much of a lunch break
when we had cheerleading practice too, but even though I wouldn’t do just two
practices a week; it does work out well-enough for us to get four of our
practices out of the way in one day – and have three school nights each week
when we aren’t busy with practices or games.
We worked on two new half-time routines; and we’ll have one of them and
a back-up routine ready for Friday evening.
We’ll make the pick depending on the weather; though the forecast looks
okay so far for game day. Our concert
band practice after school was mostly Halloween-themed; and we’re confirmed to
provide music for both a seniors’ party and the Haunted Halloween Walk. I didn’t get much of a break between band
practices because I was busy with marching band fundraising work, but we need
to keep up with all of that; and this is a fruit and vegetable boxes delivery
week too. We also have a lot of money
coming in for the raffle; and there is always extra coming in from the Maple
Valley teens; since we don’t see them every day.
Our marching band practice went really
well, and while I’ve mentioned that we’re not ready for college or pro football
half-time shows; I’m a bit surprised at the simple little marching tricks we
are adding into our half-time routine now.
We’re already doing more than I expected we would; so the second half of
the season should be fun – as long as we don’t end up with a bunch of lousy-weather
games. I’m willing to admit that I’m a
fair-weather band member; and will be very happy if we get through the season without
any more messy-weather games – or parades; when we get around to the Christmas
parades in December. Speaking – or writing
– of, we haven’t started in on the Christmas music yet; but will need to do
that before too much longer to be ready for those parades. I’ll keep you posted on that, but it isn’t
just about the music; since we’ll also need to work up color guard routines and
plan out any special marching routines we might want to use in the parades –
especially since we’ll use those opportunities for more fundraising.
After band practice, Michael and I headed
for the church with the rest of the praise team; we had a longer practice
because we need to be ready for the fall festival weekend service; and that
meant that we didn’t get home to my house until a bit after ten o’clock. We did our homework while Mom, Dad, and the
twins were still studying or working in the office; Mom led a Magi lesson for
Michael and me; and then we took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed
before Michael went home at eleven-thirty.
I came up to my room after that; hopped into my Jacuzzi; and began
multi-tasking my work while enjoying the time-phased tub time. I stayed in a time phase for as much of the
work and studying as I could, but still had more than an hour of ‘real’ time
work to do to; and a half-hour or so of online language studying that included
a multilingual chat with some teens from three other countries.
Don’t worry, Dad – I won’t be setting up
any meetings with anyone I meet online! ;^)
I guess that pretty much covers the news of
the day, and it is really late; so let’s call it a night.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
